How to hide your Friends list on Facebook, from everyone or only certain people

By

Facebook office logo signSean Gallup/Getty Images

Facebook’s currency is you — you and all of your personal information. That’s one reason Facebook likes to keep most information about you public. By default, your profile information, posts, and even your friends are available for all to see.

In practice, it’s often convenient for your friends list to be public, because it can help people to find and connect with you, by verifying friends they also know.

If you prefer, you can restrict who can see your entire Friends list using Facebook’s privacy settings. You might not want everyone to see it, especially if you want to mask the identity of some friends from others.  Or perhaps you just value your privacy and don’t want everyone to know who you’re connected to online.

How to hide your friends on Facebook via a desktop computer

1. Open Facebook in a web browser.

2. Click the downward-pointing arrow at the top right of the web page to show the menu.

3. Click "Settings."

Facebook Settings ButtonSteven John

4. In the pane on the left side of the screen, click "Privacy."

5. In "How People Find and Contact You," find "Who can see your friends list" and click "Edit."

hide 2Dave Johnson/Business Insider

6. Choose who you want to be able to see your friends list – you can choose from options including Friends and Just Me (which hides it from everyone). If you click "Custom," you can choose to enter specific names. For example, you can share your friends list with all of your friends except for Bob Smith.

hide 3Dave Johnson/Business Insider

How to hide your friends on Facebook via a mobile device

1. Start your Facebook app.

2. Tap the three horizontal lines (this is the hamburger menu). On the iPhone, this is in the lower right of the screen; on Android, it’s in the upper right.

3. Tap "Settings & Privacy."

hide 4Dave Johnson/Business Insider

4. Tap "Settings."

5. Scroll down to the Privacy section and tap "Privacy Settings."

6. Scroll down to "How people find and contact you" and tap "Who can see your friends list?"

7. Choose who you want to be able to see your friends list. You can choose to restrict the list to friends or just to "Only Me" (which hides it from everyone else). If you choose "Friends except…" you can block specific people from seeing your friends list.

hide 5Dave Johnson/Business Insider

Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:

NOW WATCH: The US won’t let Huawei, China’s biggest smartphone maker, enter the US market

See Also:

SEE ALSO: How to change your name on Facebook

Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Dave Johnson)

MustHaves.LA a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.