Your controls are right next to each thing you share. Use the audience selector to choose who can see what you're sharing. The audience you choose appears along with whatever you are saying. You can also use the tool to change who you are sharing with after you post.

Have something you only want to share with only a few friends? Send a message, create a group, or share with a friend list of your choice.

Learn more:

• Tutorial about sharing
• Common questions about sharing privacy

Before you post, look at the audience selector. Use the dropdown menu to choose who you want to share a post with.

 Public (Maximum audience for adults)

 Friends of Friends (Maximum audience for minors)

 Friends (+ friends of anyone tagged)

 Custom (Includes specific groups, friend lists or people you’ve specified to include or exclude)

You'll see this tool wherever you share content, whether it’s a status update or information on your profile (timeline).

The tool remembers the audience you shared with the last time you posted something and uses the same audience when you share again unless you change it. For example, if you choose Public for a post, your next post will also be Public unless you change this audience when you post.

If you want to change who you’re sharing with, open the dropdown menu and choose a different audience. Remember: anyone you tag in a post, along with their friends, may see the post.

To make it clear who you’re sharing with at all times, the audience you select appears along with whatever you are saying, every time you share. You can also use the audience selector to change who you are sharing with after you post something.

Most of the time, you control privacy when you post by using the inline audience selector. The tool remembers the audience you shared with the last time you posted something and uses the same audience when you share again unless you change it. For example, if you choose Public for a post, your next post will also be Public unless you change this audience when you post.

When you post from a place that doesn’t have the audience selector, like the Facebook App for iPhone, your default setting applies. To change your default setting, go to the Control Your Default Privacy section of your Privacy Settings page.

Yes, you can use the audience selector to change who can see any post you make after you publish it. Remember: people you share with can always share your information with others. So, if you change the audience after you publish something this can’t prevent someone who already saw it from sharing it. Also, remember that unless your post is set to Only Me, then anyone tagged (and potentially their friends) may see it, too.

People who can see a post you share can also see whether you chose Public (), Friends (+) (), or Custom () next to your post.

Important notes:

• If you chose to use Custom to include or exclude specific people from seeing your post, then only "Custom" will show next to your post. People will not be able to see the individuals you specified.
  
  
• If you choose to share with one of your default lists (Close Friends, Acquaintances, Restricted) or a custom list, the people on that list will be able to see the other people included on that list; however, they won’t be able to see the name of that list.
  
  
• If you choose to share with one of your smart lists, the people on that list will only be able to see the name of the list.

Anyone who can see a post can like or comment on it. That means:

• People in the audience you choose for the post
• Friends of anyone that's tagged in the post

Anyone who can see a post can see comments made on that post.

There are two ways to share where you are when you post.

1. Tell people you’re at a specific place
   To include a specific place when you post, like a restaurant or event, click the icon and type in the name of the place or event. To say you’re there with others, click the icon and type in their names. As always, you can control who sees this post by choosing an audience before you publish it. If you tag anyone with you, that person and their friends may see the post, including where you are.


2. Include your general location
   Instead of a specific place, you can choose to include the city or area you’re nearby. This info will appear next to the timestamp of your post. If you have location added to your posts, we’ll suggest a general location like the city you’re near. To change the location: 1. Hover over the city name. 2. Click the “x” next to the city name. 3. Type in a new city (or leave blank if you don’t want to mention a city in this post).
   
   If you add your general location to your post, it’ll stay on for future posts until you shut it off. So, the next time you post, your general location will be added to that post. Once removed, it’ll stay off until you add it back to your post.

If you don’t remember who you shared with or changed your mind about who to share with, you can check the audience inline, right next to the post. Just review the icon that shows you which audience you picked:

 Public (Maximum audience for adults)

 Friends of Friends (Maximum audience for minors)

 Friends (+ friends of anyone tagged)

 Only me

 Custom (Includes specific groups, friend lists or people you’ve specified to include or exclude)

The audience selector is next to each post you make; it’s not on a separate settings page. The tool remembers the audience you shared with the last time you posted something and uses the same audience when you share again unless you change it.

You can go back and change the audience for any post you made by clicking the menu to pull down your options. Learn more about your audience options.

The inline audience selector lets you choose a specific audience, every time you share. Your options include:

 Public: When you share something with Public that means anyone on the internet has permission to see it. You should only use this setting for information that you’re comfortable making publicly available. The audience for these posts could include people who are not your friends on Facebook, and people who are not in your school or work networks.

 Friends of Friends: This option is available for minors only as the maximum audience they can share with. It allows minors to share with friends and their friends.

 Friends (+ friends of anyone tagged): This option lets you post stuff to your friends on Facebook. If anyone else is tagged in a post, then the audience expands to also include the tagged person and their friends.

 Custom: When you choose Custom, you can selectively share something with specific people, or hide it from specific people. You can also share with friends lists if you’ve set them up, such as Family or Best Friends, or hide posts from your Co-Workers list. Custom also provides the option to share with groups or networks belong to, or make content completely private to Only Me - meaning only you can see the post.

 When you share or publish content to "Everyone," that means anyone on the internet is able to view it. This includes people who are not your friends on Facebook, and people who are not in your school or work networks. You should use this setting to publish things that you are comfortable making open to anyone.

If someone can see something you published to "Everyone," this doesn’t necessarily mean they will be able to view all information on your profile. What people can see when they go to your profile is determined by what your different profile privacy settings allow.

 This option lets you post stuff to your friends on Facebook. If anyone else is tagged in a post, it becomes Friends (+) because the audience expands to also include the tagged person and their friends.

 The Friends of Friends option is available for minors only as the maximum audience they can share with. It allows minors to share with friends and their friends.

The Custom privacy setting lets you specify who is able and not able to view the content you share. When you choose Custom a pop-up box will appear. From the box, you can choose to share with or exclude specific networks, friends, and Friend Lists.

 When you select the Custom option from the audience selector before you share, you can define more details about your audience.

• To make content visible to specific people: Choose “Specific People” from the first dropdown you see, and type individual names of friends or friend lists that you would like to see your post. Only the people you list will be able to see your post.
• To hide content from specific people: Type individual names of friends or friend lists you would like to restrict from seeing your post in the “Hide this from” section. People you list here will not be able to see your post.
• To hide content from everyone so that only you can see it: Choose “Only Me” from the first dropdown you see.
• To make content visible to work or school networks that you belong to: Check the networks you’d like to share with in the “Make this visible to” section.

Note: If you chose to use this option to include or exclude specific people from seeing your post, then only "Custom" will show next to your post. People will not be able to see the individuals you specified.

When you share or publish content as Public, it will visible to anyone on the internet. People may be able to find your content through public links, or through their friends sharing content with them. When you publish content as Public, you should be comfortable with it being open to anyone.