Social media likes to encourage everyone to share their lives online, but some sharing is risky. For example, one scam is to look at a person’s Facebook friends list, message them pretending to be you, and ask them to send money. This is why some parts of your Facebook profile need to be locked down. Here’s how to hide your friends list on Facebook.
Read more: How to update your Facebook privacy settings
QUICK ANSWER
To hide your Facebook friends list, sign in to your account then go to Privacy Settings. Scroll down till you see Who can see your friends list? and click the Edit button. Select your privacy setting to one of the available options, other than Public.
JUMP TO KEY SECTIONS
How to hide your Facebook friends list (desktop)
To hide your Facebook friends using a desktop computer, start by signing in to your account. Then go to the Privacy settings.
Scroll down to the How people can find and contact you section. Here, you will see an option called Who can see your friends list? This is the setting you’re looking for.
If you now click and drop down the menu underneath, you’ll see various privacy settings for your friends list. Obviously, Public is not an option if you wish to hide the list. The simplest option would be Only me. But if you are very selective about whom you make your Facebook friend, you can perhaps select Friends or Specific friends.
Make your choice, then click the Close link to close the section. The change automatically changes and saves itself in the background.
Clicking View as will show you what your profile looks like to someone who doesn’t meet your privacy settings. If the friends list is now gone, it has worked.
Bear in mind though that this setting is not foolproof. For example, if you share something and tag a friend, it will appear on their timeline along with your name. So any determined person can make connections between you and other people by searching for you on Facebook and browsing other people’s timelines. Obviously, though, that is infinitely a lot harder and more time-consuming than simply looking at your friends list on your own page.
How to hide your Facebook friends list (mobile)
You can also hide and lock down your friends list on the mobile app too. Start by tapping the menu icon at the bottom (the three horizontal lines).
Tap Settings & Privacy.
From there, go to Privacy Shortcuts–>Privacy–>See more privacy settings. Scroll down till you see Who can see your friends list?
Now choose your privacy level for your friends list.
