I'm a high school teacher, and I use my personal Facebook account to stay in touch with family and old friends, but I'm increasingly worried about students or parents finding my profile. I've tried adjusting my Facebook privacy settings in the past, but it feels like they change constantly and I'm never sure if my old photos and posts are truly hidden from people I'm not friends with. I'd like to lock everything down as much as possible without deleting my account entirely. Has anyone else in a public-facing role gone through a thorough privacy audit recently and can share a step-by-step approach or checklist to ensure maximum privacy?
Here's a practical, quick privacy audit you can run in 15–20 minutes: start with Facebook's Privacy Checkup to see the baseline, then for future posts set the audience to Friends (or a custom list that excludes students/parents). Use Limit Past Posts to move older content toward a more restricted audience, and review your About info (phone, email, location) to hide anything you don’t want publicly visible. Check tagging settings: enable Tag Review before posts appear on your timeline and consider turning off automatic tagging suggestions. Audit photos and albums for privacy (old albums can still show up if the album is public). Review profile search visibility (limit who can look you up by email or phone and turn off public search results). In the Security area, enable two-factor authentication and review active sessions; set up login alerts. Don’t forget Off-Facebook activity and ad settings if you want to limit data sharing. Finally, do a View As test (Public, and then as a non-friend) to confirm what a student or parent could see. If you need to, consider using a separate school-friendly Page for any school-related posts and keep your personal profile private.
Two quick tips: use View As to verify visibility and run Privacy Checkup once a month, and turn on two-factor authentication to keep the account safer in case of compromised passwords.
If you’re comfortable with a bit more structure, create a small plan around a professional Page for school communications and keep the personal profile strictly private. It’s a simple way to separate audiences without deleting anything.
Be mindful of photos too—old album privacy matters. An image set to Public can reveal locations or routines even if you’ve hidden posts elsewhere. Review albums and set them to Friends or Custom lists as needed.
As you go, keep a one-page snapshot of what non-friends can actually see (profile sections, cover photo, posts, photos). That will help you make quick tweaks later without digging through menus every time.
Want me to draft a printable, one-page privacy-audit checklist you can hand to yourself? I can tailor it to your settings in a minute if you tell me your current biggest risk (photos, contact info, or past posts).