there is a little known feature on facebook that allows you to be invisible to everyone but those you’ve added as a friend. this means that no one can find you in searches as well as network browsing (people looking through other people’s friends lists), wall comments, anything. you are entirely invisible to anyone who you don’t have as a friend. its pretty awesome if you want to avoid all those awkward and unwanted adds from your creepy-ex or that girl from grade 2 that you haven’t talked to in 15 years or your boss or yours friends dad. it also makes a lot of sense if you use just facebook to keep in touch with people you really are friends with. and yeah, its pretty fancy for facebook stalking. heh.

oddly enough, this rather useful feature is disguised with a pretty ambiguous name (“who can see you in searches”) and is located in an unintuitive place (the search options page). the name suggests you’d only be hidden just from searches rather than hiding all your digital traces to everyone who isn’t a friend.

i’m kinda curious as to why facebook doesnt make this feature more prominent or actually call it what it is – being invisible. i’m guessing they don’t want to encourage people to do it, because the value/addictiveness of facebook is being able to find everyone you’ve ever met.

how to do it

on the top facebook menu, click “privacy.”

on the “privacy overview” page, click “edit settings” for search.

on the “privacy settings for search” page, go to the “who can find me in search” section and select “only my friends.”

now you are cloaked. like a romulan bird of prey.