How To Hide Phone Number In Facebook Account
Robyn Ruder
Earlier today, we reported on how a security researcher managed to collect countless phone numbers and their corresponding Facebook names with very little effort before the company could stop him. All he had to do was write an automated script to exploit some basic Facebook privacy settings.
The ability to search for a person by phone number is intentional behavior and not a bug in Facebook. By default, your privacy settings allow everyone to find you with search and friend finder using the contact info you have provided, such as your email address and phone number. You can modify these settings at any time from the Privacy Settings page.
Facebook allows you to list several types of contact information on your profile page, such as your address, email and and instant-messenger screen name. You also have the option of including your phone number. However, displaying your mobile or home phone number on your profile can have negative consequences concerning your privacy. But as with most profile information, Facebook always gives you the option to hide or delete data.
The trouble is, once Facebook has scraped your phone number, you can't delete it from the social network's database. And other people can use it to look you up on Facebook. The best existing Facebook users can do is to limit who can find them via this phone number to just friends. Here's how.
On the mobile app, tap the hamburger icon () and select Settings & Privacy > Settings > Privacy Settings. Scroll down to How People Can Find and Contact You, and look for "Who can look you up using the phone number you provided?"
On the desktop, the process is similar. Select Settings > Privacy. Under How People Can Find and Contact You, look for "Who can look you up using the phone number you provided?" and click Edit on the right. In the drop-down menu, select Friends.
As mentioned above, one way Facebook gathers phone numbers is by scanning people's contact lists to help them connect with friends on Facebook. We've all been there; you create an account on a new service, and in a bid to find people to follow, you provide the service with access to your contacts.
That's nice, but it also means that even if you actively avoid Facebook over privacy concerns, any rando with your phone number in their contacts list could possibly upload it to Facebook when signing up for the service. Facebook also has a setting that lets people continuously upload their contacts in order to surface new people to follow. Do you have that activated on your account? Let's find out.
This isn't the first phone number-related uproar for Facebook. Last fall, Gizmodo reported(Opens in a new window) that mobile numbers submitted to Facebook for the purposes of two-factor authentication (2FA), as well as contact information pulled from friends' address books, are used to target ads.
So, as you can see, it's very difficult to avoid giving Facebook your phone number when everyone from advertisers to high school besties can upload it to the social network with a few taps. But you can try. And in this instance, you can use an Authenticator app for 2FA approval instead of your phone number, an option Facebook rolled out in May.
If you are currently using a phone number for Facebook 2FA and want to switch to an Authenticator, you can do that easily. But to remove your phone number, at least in theory, you'll have to turn 2FA off and add it back with just an authenticator. On desktop, navigate to Settings > Security & Login and click "Edit" next to Use two-factor authentication.
Sharing your personal information can come up for any number of reasons: you may want to get in touch with a colleague after work or you've been involved in a car accident and need to stay in contact with the other driver. Unfortunately, giving out information can be the key for others to find your social media accounts, such as Instagram, whether you want it to happen or not.
The first and most important tip is to remove your phone number from your Instagram account. When you create an account, you're asked to insert a phone number as a means to add contacts from your phone on Instagram. By removing your phone number from your Instagram account, you stop your account from appearing in the Find Friends section, under Contacts. However, before you can remove your phone number from Instagram, you must 1) have a verified email attached to your account and 2) not have two-factor authentication enabled.
Next, you must disable phone number-based two-factor authentication (2FA), if it's enabled. If it's already disabled, skip the next paragraph and pick back up with the phone number removal instructions.
Once your phone number is removed, your account should no longer show up under Contacts in the Find Friends section on other people's phones. In the screenshots below, you can see the Instagram account appears under Contacts when the phone number is linked (left) and it's gone when the phone number is removed (right).
If you want to remove your Instagram profile from appearing under Follow Facebook Friends on other people's Instagram accounts, you must go to your Instagram profile, tap on the three-dash menu, hit "Settings," tap on "Account," and finally on "Linked Accounts." Under Linked Accounts you'll see a number of accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Tap on "Facebook" and hit "Unlink Account" to remove your Facebook account from Instagram. You will no longer show up under the Follow Facebook Friends setting on Instagram in anyone's phone that may have you added on Facebook.
Strangely enough, you can't access this feature from the Instagram app on your smartphone. Instead, you have to log into your Instagram account on a web browser, either on your phone, tablet, or computer. Once you're logged in go to your profile and either tap or click on "Edit Profile." At the bottom of the page, you'll see Similar Account Suggestions. Uncheck the box and you will no longer appear as a suggestion on someone else's profile.
Of course, you can tweak your settings so as to hide posts from friends or groups. But one of the quickest ways to avoid Facebook information overload is to limit the number of people that can access your profile and send you friend requests.
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The first step to keeping any account secure is to make sure you have a strong password. You can do this in a couple of different ways, either by using a password manager, or by simply following some basic password best practices such as using numbers, symbols and both uppercase and lowercase letters. A long password is also preferable to a short one.
Facebook no longer allows a user to hide their account from a Facebook search, from what I can tell. They allow a user to hide their account from outside of Facebook, but not within. I've tested the privacy settings with two accounts, by doing a search from my other account, but got nothing to work. If someone knows how to do this or if Facebook is working on a fix, please answer this question.
WhatsApp, the messaging app also owned by Facebook (alongside Messenger and Instagram), uses your phone number as the primary way to create your account and connect you to its service. Facebook has long had a strategy to further integrate the two services, although it has run into some bumps along the way.
There are times you do want to give your phone number to Facebook, such as turning on two-factor authentication. Learn why turning on two-factor authentication is a good idea. If you do give your phone number to Facebook, however, you should be sure to hide it in your profile
LINE is an instant messaging platform that has millions of users. It can facilitate your communications since it offers. With LINE, you can text messages, video calls, photos, and even keep video calls. But if you do not have a phone number then how can you create a LINE account?
If you are facing this problem, I invite you to keep reading! In this article, I will share some tips about install the LINE app without a phone number. We will explain all the alternatives you can use from your PC and some tips on use LINE.
You can choose to create a LINE account with your email if you don't have a phone number. You might as well recover all your account information and password using your email. It also allows you to transfer your LINE account to other devices.
All told, phone scams result in almost $40 billion in losses a year in the U.S. alone. Fortunately, there are things you can do to remove your phone number from the Internet, so read on to learn how to minimize your risk.
DeleteMe scans the web for your phone number and other personal information every three months and coordinates requests to delete it. It also sends customers detailed reports to let them know the types of their personal information found online.
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