How to check which photos of you on Facebook can be seen by anyone

Many of us will probably – if we’re telling the truth – confess to the fact that there maybe one or two photos of us on social media that are a tad embarrassing. Photos that, while not wholly unsuitable for public consumption, we may not want workmates, employers or even random people on the Internet gawking at.

This is especially true of younger adults who have grown up with Facebook. In your teens or early twenties, a drunken photo on a night out for example may seem relatively harmless. But in your twenties or thirties, it’s probably not a photo you’d want your employer (or potential employer) seeing.

It’s an issue that’s certainly hit the spotlight recently, amid news that an increasing number of employers are looking up potential employees or contractors on social media.

That’s why it’s always worth having a Facebook review once in a while, to see if there are any potentially awkward content out there that you might want to put behind you. That includes photos of you available to a public audience. It doesn’t matter if your own privacy settings are set to friends only, the privacy of a photo depends on the privacy settings of the person that posted it, even if the photo is of you.

Facebook allows us to do this using the activity log.

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We recommend doing this on a desktop or laptop, because it can be fiddly. And also because, after the 2020 update to Facebook, many iterations of the Facebook mobile app no longer allow users to filter for public photos only (despite what their help pages currently state.)

If you only have a mobile at your disposal, you can visit Facebook using your Internet browser (instead of the app) where the below instructions should also work.

For desktop users…

– Click the arrow on the top right, then Settings & Privacy and then Activity Log.

– Click Filter on the top left of the page, and then select Photos and Videos, and select the Privacy option to Public. Then click Save Changes.

On the left will be photos you’re tagged in that are set to public. Annoyingly, after the 2020 Facebook update, they’ve now grouped these photos along with any photo that you’ve uploaded (that’s set to public) regardless of whether you’re in the photo or not. That means some of these photos won’t be relevant. For example, if you post photos in public groups like buy/sell groups, these photos will also show up. You’ll just need to scroll past them.

If you find a photo that you’re tagged in and you’re not comfortable with it, you can un-tag yourself from the photo’s options. If you want the photo removed completely, you’ll need to contact the person who uploaded it.

This makes for a good privacy check-up, but remember there are a number of things you shouldn’t be sharing on Facebook. Read this post for four more.