Facebook allows search engines such as Google to index your profile and publicly available information. But if you don̵
First, go to Facebook’s website with your Windows 10, Mac or Linux desktop browser and log into your account.
Then click the arrow in the top right corner of the social network to bring up a drop-down menu and select ‘Settings and privacy’.
Navigate to ‘Settings’.
Select “Privacy” in the column on the left.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and under the “How people can find and contact you” section you will find an option called “Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile?”
Click the blue “Edit” button next to that option.
Uncheck the box next to ‘Allow search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile’.
In the next popup message, click on ‘Disable’.
Finally, select the option “Close” to save your new preference.
That is it. Now Facebook will prevent search engines outside the social network from linking your profile in their results.
Note: It will take at least a few weeks for this setting to take effect. Even after Facebook processes the request at the end, your information and profile link will remain in search engine cache and appear in search results. Once Facebook communicates the updated preference to sites such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing, they will need some extra time to reflect the changes.
Although search engines can no longer link your profile directly in the results, they can crawl your publicly available information, such as posts and your full name. Because of this loophole, anyone with the right keywords can still find your Facebook profile through search engines.
To further reduce your digital footprint, you can limit the visibility of your posts and lock your Facebook account.
RELATED: How to Lock Your Facebook Account
