How to Remove Your Phone Number From Facebook

Earlier today, we reported on how a security scientist managed to gather numerous phone numbers and their matching Facebook names with hardly any effort before the business might stop him. How To Remove Your Phone Number From Facebook All he needed to do was write an automatic script to exploit some fundamental Facebook privacy settings.

How To Remove Your Phone Number From Facebook

 

For its part, Facebook gave us this explanation of exactly what the script was exploiting:

The ability to browse for an individual by phone number is deliberate behavior and not a bug in Facebook By default, your personal privacy settings allow everyone to find you with search and good friend finder using the contact details you have offered, such as your email address and phone number. You can customize these settings at any time from the Privacy Settings page.

So, how do you protect yourself and how can you eliminate your number from Facebook? There are 3 alternatives you have to understand about.

Limitation Who Can See Your Phone Number on Facebook.
Go to Facebook.com, login if you have not currently, and click your name in the top-left corner. Click on the "Update Information" button on the best side. Under Contact Info, click the "Edit" button. Next to your telephone number, there will be a drop-down menu. Make sure this option is not set to "Public" and that it a minimum of states "Pals" or perhaps "Only Me."

 

This will make certain that if somebody gos to your profile, they can not see your telephone number unless they are your good friend. This means that even if your profile is public (it probably should not be), your phone number is not visible to the general public. Regrettably, that's insufficient; see the next choice.

Limitation Who Can Browse Your Telephone Number on Facebook.
This is the part that the scientist exploited to essentially develop his Facebook telephone directory. Even if your contact number is set to personal, someone can still find you if they have it.

As such, if someone writes a script that picks random phone numbers and looked for them on Facebook, as the security researcher did, they can link telephone number to Facebook profiles, that include individuals's names and other details.

Here's the setting that began it all:.

 

Above you can see how the default alternatives look like. To customize them, click on the drop-down menu in the top-right corner on Facebook and pick "Personal privacy Settings." Next, scroll down to "How You Link" and click on the blue "Edit Settings" link on the right-hand side.

Change the "Who can look you up using the email address or phone number you offered?" to Buddies, and anything else you believe need to be altered. This will stop somebody from having the ability to look you up on Facebook if they have your telephone number.

Remove Your Telephone Number From Facebook.

If the above scared you, maybe you should not have your phone number on Facebook in the first location. Follow the steps to remove your phone number from Facebook. If you don't offer information to Facebook, those who use the social network can't utilize it to find you, or against you.

Such articles How To Remove Your Phone Number From Facebook thanks for visiting can hopefully help you out.