Can You Really See Who Viewed Your Facebook Profile Recently?
Updated: May 20, 2024
Admit it: You've always wondered who might be poking around your Facebook page. But is there really a way to tell who viewed your profile recently?
Social media seems made for snooping. And I’m not just talking about the fact that Facebook appears to know what I shop for online and what I talk about with my friends. The site makes it easy for others to find out information about us, whether they’re random acquaintances, work colleagues, exes or cybercriminals. I don’t want to put myself at risk for phishing scams or hackers, so I often wonder if there’s a way to tell who viewed my Facebook profile recently.
If you’re like me, you probably have similar concerns. To answer that burning question, I turned to three tech experts with decades of experience in technology and social media. Ahead, they explain whether you can see who is stalking your Facebook profile, what people can tell about you from your Facebook profile and other tech tips for keeping your information safe.
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About the experts
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Can I see who viewed my Facebook profile recently?
Unfortunately, Facebook doesn’t offer a way to see who viewed your profile. The social media site’s official policy, included in an answer on its help page, explicitly states, “Facebook doesn’t let people track who views their profile.”
Eric Griffith, a tech journalist with more than 30 years of experience in the tech world, says there was a brief period in 2018 when Facebook allowed users to see who visited their pages in the previous 30 days, as well as who viewed their most recent posts. That option has long since disappeared.
The good news is that other people can’t tell if you’ve viewed their Facebook profile either. And though there’s no easy way to see who is stalking your Facebook profile, you can see who follows you.
According to Griffith, the only social media platforms that let you see who viewed your profile are LinkedIn and TikTok. LinkedIn, which focuses on career networking, allows users who pay for “premium” memberships to see who’s checked out their profile. TikTok, an app for creating and sharing short videos, lets any user see this info, Griffith says; you just have to enable TikTok’s profile view history feature in the settings first.
He adds that the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) “still doesn’t let you see who viewed your profile but will tell you how many times it was visited.”
Can I use an app to see who viewed my Facebook profile recently?
Since Facebook doesn’t have a setting that allows you to see who viewed your profile, you might be tempted to install a third-party app or browser extension to accomplish this goal. But Griffith warns that such tools are bad news.
“Facebook doesn’t want third-party apps to allow this and even requests that people report any apps that do,” he says. “For safety, consider that if an app could scrape that data, what else are they scraping about you? Almost assuredly, they’re stealing some of your data if they can.”
Award-winning journalist Lance Ulanoff, who has decades of experience in the tech space, agrees. “They’re most likely selling the data to a third party,” he says. So steer clear of apps that claim to track profile views, and report such services to Facebook.
Can I hack my own data to see who viewed my Facebook profile recently?
An older “hack” floating around the internet claims that you can see who visited your Facebook profile by inspecting your page’s source code. Sites that promote this hack say you’ll be able to see profile ID numbers for the people who have visited. Ulanoff warns that there’s no way to confirm that these numbers and accounts actually represent people who visited your profile; instead, they could be people you already connect with on Facebook or Messenger.
In addition, attempting this hack may put your computer at risk. Griffith says the sites that suggest these hacks have his “browser sending up security messages.” Facebook is replete with scams, so it’s best not to make it any easier for bad actors to access your data.
Can I see what my profile looks like to other people?
Yes. To see the public view of your Facebook profile, go to your profile. (How you get there will vary depending on whether you’re using a computer, an iPhone, an Android phone or a tablet.)
Once you’re on your profile page, select the three-dots menu near “Edit profile.” Click “View As” to see what non-friends see when they visit your profile page.
If someone is not your friend on Facebook, they shouldn’t be able to see anything but your profile picture, cover photo and any pictures or posts that have a “public” setting, says Andrew Selepak, PhD, an assistant instructional professor in the Department of Media Production, Management and Technology at the University of Florida who specializes in social media.
Why doesn’t Meta reveal how to see who is stalking your Facebook profile?
The main reason there’s no official way to determine who views your Facebook profile is privacy. “It would be a PR nightmare for Facebook if there was a way for non-friends to view your page and for users to know about it,” Selepak says. “We all look up friends, former friends, exes and co-workers on Facebook, and we don’t want users to know when we look up their page.”
If it were possible to see who viewed your profile, the people lurking on your page may spend less time on the site, thus hurting Facebook’s revenue, he adds.
Another possibility is that Facebook wants to avoid legal troubles. Imagine, Griffith says, if someone came to Facebook saying, “You let my stalker see my pictures, and I have a restraining order.” That user might be inclined to sue Facebook, so the social media giant keeps that info under wraps.
How to see who watched your Facebook story
Even though there’s no way to know who viewed your Facebook profile recently, you can tell who viewed your Facebook story. Unlike posts, which stay up on Facebook indefinitely, stories on Facebook are viewable for only 24 hours. You don’t need fancy Facebook hacks to find out who watched them. It’s easy to tell who viewed any given Facebook story—just follow these quick steps:
- Go to the gallery of stories at the top of your feed.
- Click on “Your story.” (If you don’t have a Facebook story, you can tap “Create story” to make one first.)
- Click “Viewers” at the bottom left to see a list of everyone who has watched your story.
If you want only certain people to view your Facebook stories, be sure to adjust your privacy settings. Here’s how:
- After you click on “Your story,” click the three dots in the upper-right corner.
- Select “Edit story privacy.”
- Choose from “Public” (anyone on Facebook or Messenger can view your story), “Friends” or “Custom” (you select specific people who can view it). You can also elect to hide the story from specific people.
Why trust us
Reader’s Digest has published hundreds of articles on personal technology, arming readers with the knowledge to protect themselves against cybersecurity threats and internet scams as well as revealing the best tips, tricks and shortcuts for computers, cellphones, apps, texting, social media and more. For this piece, writer Laurie Budgar tapped her experience as a longtime reporter who’s written about technology. Then Marc Saltzman, a freelance technology journalist with 30 years of experience, author of books including the upcoming Apple Vision Pro for Dummies and host of the syndicated Tech It Out radio show and podcast, gave it a rigorous review to ensure that all information is accurate and offers the best possible advice to readers. We rely on credentialed experts with personal experience and know-how as well as primary sources, including tech companies, professional organizations and academic institutions. We verify all facts and data and revisit them over time to ensure they remain accurate and up to date. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
Sources:
- Andrew Selepak, PhD, an assistant instructional professor in the Department of Media Production, Management and Technology at the University of Florida
- Lance Ulanoff, the editor at large for TechRadar and an award-winning tech journalist with decades of experience writing about technology
- Eric Griffith, a senior features editor at PC Mag who has written about technology professionally for over 30 years
- Facebook: “Who views your Facebook profile”
- LinkedIn: “Access the Who’s viewed your profile feature”
- TikTok: “Profile view history”
- Twitter: “About view counts”
- Facebook: “How to see the public view of your Facebook profile”
- Facebook: “Stories”
- Facebook: “How can I tell who’s seen my story on Facebook?”
- Facebook: “Change your story’s privacy setting on Facebook”
Originally Published: November 01, 2021
