How to hide friends on Facebook

Privacy is being a major concern when our social life on the web is increasing rapidly. Any information about us that is displayed on the web, will be available to anyone, if it not properly secured. And this information can be handled by malicious users and it could work against us.

Figure 1

Suppose I were a business man who has both my clients and competitors on my friends list in Facebook. If my friends list was visible to all, my competitors could access my client’s information and approach them and that would be more than enough for all my hard work to go down the drain. Similarly if my kid’s friend’s list was visible to everyone, it may also not be such a good idea. Hence as I said earlier any information even, our contacts should be limited to ourselves and our trusted group. So it is a good option to hide your friends list from people whom you are are not so familiar with and stay secured.

To hide your friends list in Facebook you need to follow these steps:

1. Privacy Settings
   In the main menu on the top right, click on Account –>Privacy Settings. (Refer Fig.1)
2. View Settings
   In the Privacy Setting, Go to “Connecting on Facebook” and click View Settings as below.
3. See your Friend List
   In the Privacy Setting, Go to to the option “See your Friend List”, where you could choose who can view your friends list. You have 4 options to choose from – Everyone can view your friends list, or it be viewed by your Friends of Friends or you could specify the users individually by customization.
4. Customize
   When you choose customizing option, you could  hide your friends list from everyone or specify a group of people whom you wish to hide it from.

Hiding you friends list does not mean that any other information that you put on Facebook is secure, you should also be aware of the privacy settings on Facebook. . Its a good choice to learn about privacy on any social networking site you access and  stay secure on the web!