5 Important Facebook Timeline Privacy Settings

Facebook's timeline has brought major changes to the profile page. The layout and time-driven reverse chronological updates make it unique as well as confusing for some users. The most important concern among users migrating to the new timeline is their privacy settings. Here are five most important privacy settings to avoid any leaks of private data from your account. You can further tighten the security by opting for 'Custom' visibility each time you update your timeline. This ensures you have complete control over the type of information you want to share with your friends' network and the general public. Depending on your personal preference, you an easily fine tune these settings to suit your needs. While customizing these settings, make sure you do not impose excessive restrictions which may annoy your friends on Facebook. So, let's get started and see how we can easily change and customize our Facebook timeline privacy settings for a better and time-saving experience for both us and for our extended friends' network.

Timeline Review - It's one of the most important timeline settings which can be accessed through - Privacy settings -> How Tags Work -> Timeline review.


Once you've activated this option, all posts that include your tag won't appear on your timeline without your approval. All such posts will be queued in a 'Pending reviews' tab and will be only added to your timeline once you manually approve them.

Maximum Timeline Visibility - The name itself tells you what would be its implications. This important setting can be accessed through - Privacy settings -> How Tags Work -> Maximum Timeline Visibility.


Once configured, this setting defines the scope (visibility) of tagged posts on your timeline. In simple words, this setting limits the audience of all tagged posts on your new timeline. You can choose the custom option to fine-tune the visibility of all the tagged posts.

Timeline Searchability - It can be compared to limiting the searchability of Facebook community in finding your Facebook profile. You can access this setting through - Privacy settings -> How You Connect -> Who can look up your timeline by name or contact info.


Once configured, you can define who can search your new timeline by your name or a piece of contact information in your profile. In other words, it defines who can get access to your timeline in the search queries on Facebook.

Timline Posting - This is yet another important timeline privacy setting. You can access this setting through - Privacy settings -> How You Connect -> Who can post on your timeline.


This option is simple and easy to understand. You can choose who can directly post on your new timeline. Unless you're spying your Ex, you may allow your network (friends) or extended network (friends of friends) to post on your timeline.

Limit the Audience for Past Posts - This option is particularly useful for users with large amount of tagged posts in the past. You can access this option through - Privacy settings -> Limit the Audience for Past Posts -> Manage Past Post Visibility.


Once you've activated this option, all old tagged posts visibility will be switched to 'Friends'. These old posts may originally be 'Public' or with custom visibility. Essentially you override their visibility and make it 'Friends' in one go. I'll strongly advise you to activate this option only if you're sure that any old tagged post may not leak your private data.