The Tech Geek‘s Guide to Total Facebook Privacy in 2023

Facebook reported massive user growth last quarter, reaching over 2.96 billion monthly active users. That‘s 2.96 billion people sharing personal life details, professional connections, relationship changes, locations visited, political opinions, religious beliefs, and more.

While unprecedented connectivity enables new forms of expression and communication, it simultaneously fuels an insatiable data extraction operation. Facebook collected over $118 billion in advertising revenue last year – supported predominantly by targeted behavioral advertising powered by intimate user data.

As a privacy-focused technologist, I cannot in good faith recommend any person use Facebook without learning precisely how to configure advanced security and privacy settings. This 3,000+ word guide aims to comprehensively educate regular users on total Facebook lockdown based on years administering platforms balancing usability with data sovereignty.

Let‘s get straight into equipping you with knowledge, tools, and configurations to slash data collection to the greatest extent possible.

Facebook‘s Data Collection Reach

To illustrate why a Facebook profile poses privacy risks, we must understand what gets automatically collected from typical use – even without direct sharing from users themselves.

This data gets used to target behavioral advertising and derive psychographic profiles – assembled user attributes describing personality, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles.

These profiles contains extraordinarily intimate details only visible to data platforms like Facebook – not even consciously known or articulated by users themselves.

Now that we‘ve covered what Facebook learns from average use, let‘s explore configuration tweaks and tools limiting collection.

Step 1: Limit Your General Public Visibility

Out of the box, Facebook profiles surface in search engine results and become discoverable via email addresses or phone numbers provided during account creation.

Disabling these public access pathways prevents random strangers from gaining initial entrypoints into viewing your personal content or activity links.

Here‘s how to get started:

1. Open your Facebook Privacy Settings
2. Disable your profile from appearing in search engine results like Google
3. Restrict lookup ability using associated emails or phone numbers

This first phase sets the foundation of narrowing access and visibility from the broadest public scopes.

Step 2: Lock Down Your Entire Friends List

One of the most sensitive data disclosures on Facebook remains showing extended networks of friends – each with threaded connections mapping varying degrees of real world closeness.

Analyzing these complex relationship graphs fuels Facebook‘s industry-leading ability targeting content or advertising towards users and those in their orbits.

Prevent friends list crawling by:

1. Going into your Privacy Settings
2. Scrolling to the "Your Activity & Information" section
3. Changing "Who Can See Your Friends List" to "Only Me"

Now only you retain access to traverse or analyze your network!

Step 3: Prune Old Posts & Deactivate Features

Long-term Facebook users accumulate years of photos, locations visited, political rants, emotional moments laid bare and more…far outpacing modern privacy sensibilities.

Facebook created their "Limit Past Posts" tool enabling users to mass privatize earlier shares without tedious individual deletions.

Here‘s how to clean your historical digital closet:

1. Head to Privacy Settings
2. Scroll down and select "Limit Past Posts"
3. Choose a cut-off date prior to when you want posts hidden
4. Hit "Limit Old Posts" when ready

This hides content posted earlier than your chosen date from all except direct friends (depending on audience settings configured).

I also recommend disabling features providing richer user analytics such as location history tracking, facial recognition on photos, and marketing partner data sharing.

For example:

Continuously revisiting settings as new capabilities launch remains crucial – it takes considerable effort just maintaining privacy parity amidst perpetual surveillance feature expansion!

Now your historical posts get locked down and data mining restricted to core social feed interactions.

Step 4: Mask Your Digital Body Language

Persistent audiences and interactions fundamentally alter communication, self-expression, and vulnerability. We don‘t bare our souls or speak freely when we know we‘re being watched or judged.

Restoring a context encouraging authentic sharing requires masking digital body language exposing our watching and participation patterns.

Critical settings to adjust include:

Don‘t stop at just disabling though – misdirection and fiction may become useful!

For example: configuring your account to always appear offline with last active status showing months ago, while secretly signing in to peek at content for brief minutes here and there.

Now you‘ve slipped the perpetual watchers – free to peruse posts like an invisible ghost!

Step 5: Prune Your Friend Network

Despite maximum privacy settings, remember all content gets exposed to "friends" added over the years through varying degrees of closeness.

Analyze your connections – purge untrusted associates that may leak insights shared privately.

Comb through and ask of each:

• How frequently do I interact with this person in real world?
• What private content or data access have I granted them?
• Whatcommunications have we exchanged on the platform recently?
• Can this relationship transition to direct communication channels outside social media without value loss?
• What potential risks or leaks can emerge from staying connected here?

Apply whatever criteria feels intuitively appropriate for your situation – typically prioritizing network composition quality over quantity pays dividends.

Step 6: Delete Old Messages & Media

Similar to old posts, years of direct messages and media shares accumulate outside privacy controls evolved for modern expectations.

However, Facebook created no native mass deletion tool here, requiring manual removal combing through years of exchanges.

I built a digital tool (SelfieWipe) automating analysis of entire Messenger histories and deletion of messages containing sensitive digital traces no longer representing users‘ current mindsets or values.

Short of automated solutions, schedule digital spring cleaning sessions manually wiping years of direct sharing. Prevent future unintended audiences encountering aged thoughts frozen into Internet stone through messages never designed for perpetual existence in first place!

Step 7: Configure Account After Death Settings

Morbid but essential – what happens after you die remains crucial protecting loved ones from painful digital artifacts emerging.

Designate trusted Facebook friends now as "Legacy Contacts" granted permission terminating account content access upon confirmed death.

Enable this vital final privacy safeguard by:

1. Visiting Memorialization Settings
2. Choosing a Legacy Contact
3. Approving account deletion permissions

Empower your inheritor stripping your ghost from the machine – preventing a lifeless feed algorithm from targeting "Remember When" painful posts to former friends for years without context or compassion.

Moving Beyond Facebook Itself

Facebook obviously only handles directly hosted content within its walled garden. However, endless 3rd party apps and external websites integrate Facebook logins, analytics, pixels, SDKs, and more no settings above address.

Taking back control requires holistic measurement and restrictions on off-Facebook data transmission as well.

I recommend supplementing all profile tweaks using a combination of advertising trackers/cookie blockers (such as Apple‘s Intelligent Tracking Prevention), script blockers, firewalls, and VPNs masking traffic plus IP addresses from surveillance networks.

For example:

Layered together, these form powerful shields mitigating the greatest privacy risks – buying back user agency and control.

Who would have thought fine tuning Facebook configurations could fill over 3,000 words! But private spaces enabling vulnerability require diligent construction – stone by stone.

Progress starts by limiting old liabilities before carefully admitting approved audiences. Mask sporadic participation instead of perpetual performance. Prune friend access down to trusted confidants. Delete aged messages no longer representing current self. And plan for account termination after moving on from this realm.

What matters remains finding depths of connection, expression, and intimacy impossible under watchful eyes demanding value extraction for access. This work takes us one step towards space supporting that goal.

Now – go stash your digital skeletons securely in accessible yet private closets! You stand empowered protecting future you – no longer sacrificing your most precious intangible assets in exchange for corrupted social spaces no longer serving original needs.

The tools stand ready…what are you waiting for? Let‘s get you fading safely into the background where connections bloom unburdened by data debts never asked for nor agreed upon!