Facebook Privacy Settings For Seniors: The 2026 Checklist

If you have had a Facebook account for a few years — and most of us over 60 now have — your privacy settings are almost certainly out of date. Meta (Facebook's parent company) changes defaults every year, usually in ways that share slightly more of your information by default. In 2026 there were three notable shifts: ad-personalization defaults were reset, "audience" labels on old posts were re-evaluated, and memorialization requirements got simpler.

This is an 8-point checklist. Block out 20 minutes this week, open Facebook on either your phone or laptop, and go through it step by step. You will end up with a Facebook that does what you want it to do — stay connected with family — and a lot less of what Meta wants it to do.

Step 1 — Run the Privacy Checkup

Facebook has a built-in wizard that covers about 60% of what matters. Do this first.

On the app (phone): Tap the three-line menu (bottom-right on iPhone, top-right on Android) → Settings & Privacy → Privacy Checkup.

On the web: click your profile photo (top-right) → Settings & Privacy → Privacy Checkup.

Facebook walks you through 5 screens. For each, use these recommendations:

"Who can see what you share" — set to Friends, not Public, for posts and most profile details
"How to keep your account secure" — turn on Two-factor authentication (we cover this in detail in Step 6)
"How people can find you on Facebook" — set "Who can look you up using your email" and "...your phone number" to Friends only
"Your data settings" — glance through, we go deeper in later steps
"Your ad preferences" — we go deeper in Step 5

This takes 5–8 minutes. You do not have to get everything perfect in the wizard — the remaining 40% is the rest of this checklist.

Step 2 — Lock down your profile visibility

Facebook has at least 15 separate "who can see" toggles. The ones that matter most:

Settings → Audience and visibility → Profile information

Birthday → Only me (or Friends if you want birthday wishes)
Email address → Only me
Phone number → Only me
Current city → Friends (never Public)
Relationship status → Friends
Work and education → Friends (scammers use old workplace info to sound familiar)

Settings → Audience and visibility → Posts

Who can see your future posts → Friends
"Limit who can see past posts" → click Limit Past Posts — this instantly switches old public posts to Friends-only. It is a one-click fix that cleans up 10–15 years of over-shared content.

Step 3 — Friend requests and messages

Settings → Audience and visibility → How people find and contact you

Who can send you friend requests → Friends of Friends (reduces fake-profile friend requests, which are the #1 gateway to Facebook scams)
Who can message you → Friends and connections (stops strangers cold-DM'ing you)

Scammers rely on random friend requests. Setting this to Friends of Friends drops the scam volume by roughly 80% in our experience.

Step 4 — Tagging

Your friends or family (or, sometimes, their hacked accounts) may tag you in posts and photos. By default those tags appear on your timeline for all your friends to see.

Settings → Audience and visibility → Profile and tagging

Who can post on your profile → Friends or Only me (Only me is fine — your wall does not need to be a guestbook)
Review posts you're tagged in before they appear on your profile → On
Review tags people add to your posts before the tags appear on Facebook → On
Who can see what others post on your profile → Only me

With both reviews ON, nothing shows up on your profile without you tapping "Approve" first.

Step 5 — Ad preferences

This is where Facebook makes its money, and where your data gets used most. Tighten it.

Settings → Ads → Ad preferences (on the web, this is the most comprehensive view).

Ad topics — Facebook lets you reduce categories like alcohol, gambling, weight loss, politics, and pregnancy. Reduce all of these unless one is specifically relevant to you.
Data about your activity from partners — set Review setting → Not allowed. This stops third-party websites and apps from feeding your activity to Facebook for ad targeting.
Categories used to reach you — click through the list and remove anything inaccurate or uncomfortable. Facebook has often assigned categories ("likely to buy hearing aids," "interested in assisted living") based on paper-thin signals.
Advertisers you've interacted with — hide any you no longer want to see.

If you get stuck at step 5 and the Ads menu looks different from this description: Meta often redesigns it. Search "Ad preferences" in the Facebook settings search bar at the top of the Settings page — it jumps straight to the latest version.

Step 6 — Turn on Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

If you do only one thing from this list, do this one. Two-factor authentication means nobody can log in to your Facebook without also having your phone. This single setting prevents the "hacked-account" scam that circulates through friends' lists.

Settings → Accounts Center → Password and security → Two-factor authentication → tap your account → choose Authentication app (preferred) or Text message (SMS) (simpler).

Authentication app: install Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator on your phone. Facebook shows a QR code; scan it with the app; enter the 6-digit code. Done.
SMS: Facebook texts you a code each time you log in on a new device. Works fine, slightly less secure than an app.

Either way, save the recovery codes Facebook gives you at the end. Print them and put them in a drawer — not in your email. If you lose your phone, those codes are how you get back in.

Step 7 — Off-Facebook activity

This is the one most people have never heard of. Facebook tracks your activity on other websites and apps through invisible pixels — even if you never click anything.

Settings → Accounts Center → Your information and permissions → Off-Facebook activity → Disconnect future activity

This stops the data flow. Facebook still sees what you do on Facebook itself, but not across the rest of the web. Your ads will feel a bit more generic after this. That is the point.

Step 8 — Memorialization settings

The part nobody wants to think about, but Meta made this much easier in 2026.

Settings → General → Memorialization settings

Choose a legacy contact — a close family member who can manage your Facebook account if something happens to you. They cannot log in as you, but they can:

Change your profile photo
Respond to new friend requests
Pin a memorial post
Eventually request memorialization or deletion

Meta also added a new option in 2026 to schedule automatic memorialization if the account stays inactive for a defined period. You can configure that on the same screen.

Taking five minutes to set this up saves a grieving family a lot of paperwork later.

Bonus — annual check

Put a calendar reminder for every January: "Facebook Privacy Checkup." Meta will have changed at least two defaults by then. Re-running Step 1 once a year keeps the account from quietly drifting back to over-sharing.

What to tell your family

If you live with or regularly help a parent or grandparent, sit with them at a laptop this weekend and walk through this checklist together. It takes longer on the phone — the Facebook app hides half these options two menus deep. On a laptop at facebook.com, every setting is faster to reach.

The two most important for a parent: Step 3 (who can send friend requests) and Step 6 (two-factor). Those two settings alone prevent the majority of Facebook-based scams targeting older users.

Accessibility note

If Facebook's text is too small, enable Settings → Accessibility → Keyboard navigation on the web, and use your browser's Zoom in (Ctrl + on Windows / Cmd + on Mac). On the phone, the Facebook app respects your system text size — set it once in Settings → Display (Android) or Settings → Display & Brightness → Text Size (iPhone) and every screen follows.

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✅ Reviewed by Eleanor Shaw — techfor60s editorial desk, last verified 2026-04-18.