Facebook Privacy – Can You Track Who Visits Your Profile?

I’ve been asked whether there are Facebook Applications that users can utilize to track who visits their profile, views their photos, etc. I wanted to highlight a few things from the Facebook Help Pages so we can better understand who can see our profiles, posts, photos, videos, etc.

Can you know who is visiting your profile or how often it’s being viewed?

“Facebook currently does not provide an application that allows users to track profile views or statistics on the views of any specific user content. Third party developers, however, may offer applications that provide some of this functionality. Please keep a few things in mind for these applications:

Applications CANNOT track profile visits for users who simply go to another person’s profile; Facebook has made this technically impossible. In order to be tracked by an application, you will need to specifically agree to allow the application to track your actions.”

So, Facebook has put measures in place that requires anyone who is visiting your profile to first accept an application to track where they are visiting to make this possible.

Can others know when I visit their profiles?

“Facebook currently does not provide an application that allows users to track profile views or statistics on the views of any specific user content. Third party developers, however, may offer applications that provide some of this functionality. Please keep a few things in mind for these applications:

Applications CANNOT track profile visits for users who simply go to another person’s profile; Facebook has made this technically impossible. In order to be tracked by an application, you will need to specifically agree to allow the application to track your actions.”

If you haven’t accepted an application that will track your profile or content views, Facebook has measures in place that won’t allow this.

Bottom Line

Be sure to read the details of each application prior to allowing the application to access your profile and information. Unsafe applications do exist and the typical Facebook user posts quite a bit of personal information their profile. If you don’t agree to allow your actions to be monitored, they won’t be. To adjust your privacy and security settings in Facebook, be sure to read 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know.