03/13/2024
In the past couple of years and especially in the last two weeks, I’ve noticed a lot of people posting things like, “Don’t accept any new friend requests from me…I been ______” (you can fill in the word). Everyone wants to be you!
A lot of it has to do with privacy settings. Your profile photos can been taken/saved/used because generally they’re always set on “public” view. Where they get you is if you have your “Who can see your friends list on your profile?” set to Public. To change this from your phone:
1. Click on the gear ⚙ link (at the top right) to access your settings.
2. Under Tools and resources, click the 🔒 PRIVACY Checkup link.
3. Click the “Who can see what you share” box.
4. Click Continue.
5. Scroll down to “Who can see your friends list on your profile?” and choose any setting other than public.
Then, these pretenders—because they aren’t friends with you on Facebook—won’t be able to see or add your friends and will more than likely leave your account alone and stop trying to be you. (Not to mention, this also protects your friends from possible scams where someone is pretending to be you and then asking for money.)
This also goes for any of your posts. If you have the small icon that looks like the world map beside your post, anyone on Facebook can see your post. If you prefer to keep your posts just so your friends can see them, change the privacy setting there too.
This has been my PSA-for-the-day. 😉
