# On Facebook, can you preview how a friend of a friend sees your profile? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 29, 2010, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-facebook-can-you-preview-how-a-friend-of-a-friend-sees-your-profile/555445 "2010-09-29T05:13:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![J\_Cubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@J\_Cubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J_Cubed)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-facebook-can-you-preview-how-a-friend-of-a-friend-sees-your-profile/555445/1 "2010-09-29T05:13:50Z")
I can use [this method](http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=13662) to see what my profile looks like, by default, to random strangers. Or, I can type in a friend’s name (which autocompletes) to see how he or she sees my profile. If I type in the name of someone with whom I am not friends, nothing happens. The Facebook privacy settings, however, allow me to distinguish between friends, friends of friends, and errbody. Since I have those set differently, and there are people that I am aware of in real life, but have not friended on Facebook, I’m curious to know what they see. Is there some trick, or is it straight impossible? ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-facebook-can-you-preview-how-a-friend-of-a-friend-sees-your-profile/555445/2 "2010-09-29T10:54:45Z")
Isn’t that the same as if you go to Facebook, don’t sign in, and search for your name? go on the homepage click on “find friends” and search for you. zat work? ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-facebook-can-you-preview-how-a-friend-of-a-friend-sees-your-profile/555445/3 "2010-09-29T11:01:53Z")
Further, I think friends of friends only see what you publicly post back and forth to common friends. Your fof can go to his friend’s wall (also your friend) and see the history of a conversation on your guys walls. If that same person tries to go to your profile he/she will not have access to anything that you have blocked. It depends on your privacy settings, but most people allow a fof to view wall to wall stuff but still have your homepage locked down. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-facebook-can-you-preview-how-a-friend-of-a-friend-sees-your-profile/555445/4 "2010-09-29T12:55:02Z")
Go to your account, then select “Privacy Settings.” Choose the type of viewer (i.e., Everyone, Friends, etc.). Click on “Customize Settings.” At the top, click on “Preview my Profile.” ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-facebook-can-you-preview-how-a-friend-of-a-friend-sees-your-profile/555445/5 "2010-09-29T13:19:25Z")
And if it’s not clear, on following the last post, on the top of that page there’s a text box after “Preview how your profile appears to a specific person:” ---
**Author:** ![J\_Cubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@J\_Cubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J_Cubed)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-facebook-can-you-preview-how-a-friend-of-a-friend-sees-your-profile/555445/6 "2010-09-29T15:28:28Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Go to your account, then select “Privacy Settings.” Choose the type of viewer (i.e., Everyone, Friends, etc.). Click on “Customize Settings.” At the top, click on “Preview my Profile.” > [@SenorBeef](#): > > And if it’s not clear, on following the last post, on the top of that page there’s a text box after “Preview how your profile appears to a specific person:” And then…? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-facebook-can-you-preview-how-a-friend-of-a-friend-sees-your-profile/555445/7 "2010-09-29T15:50:08Z")
> [@J\_Cubed](#): > > And then…? Type in the name of the friend of a friend to see how they see your profile. ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-facebook-can-you-preview-how-a-friend-of-a-friend-sees-your-profile/555445/8 "2010-09-29T16:24:55Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > > [@J\_Cubed](#): > > > > And then…? > > Type in the name of the friend of a friend to see how they see your profile. From the OP > [@](#): > > If I type in the name of someone with whom I am not friends, nothing happens. I think I’ve noticed this same thing, because I have some pending friend requests that I would really like to make sure the permissions I set are working BEFORE I add them. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-facebook-can-you-preview-how-a-friend-of-a-friend-sees-your-profile/555445/9 "2010-09-29T16:44:50Z")
> [@troub](#): > > I think I’ve noticed this same thing, because I have some pending friend requests that I would really like to make sure the permissions I set are working BEFORE I add them. Ah, yes. It does say “Type a Friend’s name” in there, doesn’t it. Hmm… It seems like it’s not possible then. ---
**Author:** ![Eurograff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Eurograff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eurograff)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-facebook-can-you-preview-how-a-friend-of-a-friend-sees-your-profile/555445/10 "2010-10-02T23:47:36Z")
This is actually very easy to do. It’s just that that Facebook tool that autocompletes a friend’s name doesn’t work for anyone not in your friend list, so you’ll have to do it by yourself with a little manual URL (or is the right acronym URI these days?) tweaking. So, when you fool around in fb you’ll notice how entering somebody’s profile gives you their facebook ID as a part of the internet address on your browser’s location bar. By default this is a number and the address looks like “[Facebook](http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1234567890123456789)”, though many have set so called vanity id’s, usually their own name or nickname, which appears simpler like “[El Uno from UnknownStaar](http://www.facebook.com/thestraightdope)”. Now when you use the tool mentioned in the OP to see how your profile looks to a certain friend of yours, the address on location bar changes to the form “[Facebook](http://www.facebook.com/<yourprofile>?viewas=<friends.id>)”. Following this logic, you can now replace the part that follows after the string “?viewas=” with the numeric id or vanity id of a friend-of-a-friend or anyone else you want, and that’s it. You will now be shown how your profile looks like to whoever it was whose id was inserted. Of course, one has to ask that if Facebook offers friends of friends as one privacy category, why isn’t there then a more obvious way to preview how your profile looks like to someone belonging to this group. But well, that would go under the ever-growing list of privacy-related problems in Facebook, and at least this method works for now. ---
**Author:** ![Lostariel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lostariel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lostariel)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-facebook-can-you-preview-how-a-friend-of-a-friend-sees-your-profile/555445/11 "2010-10-06T23:04:01Z")
Thanks! Great! Logical method! makes me feel stupid that I didn’t thought about it.:smack: > [@Eurograff](#): > > … form “[http://www.facebook.com/<yourprofile>?viewas=<friends.id>](http://www.facebook.com/<yourprofile>?viewas=<friends.id>)”. Following this logic, you can now replace the part that follows after the string “?viewas=” with the numeric id or vanity id of a friend-of-a-friend. ---
**Author:** ![telling\_eyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@telling\_eyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/telling_eyes)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-facebook-can-you-preview-how-a-friend-of-a-friend-sees-your-profile/555445/12 "2012-07-18T14:04:37Z")
> [@Lostariel](#): > > Thanks! Great! > Logical method! makes me feel stupid that I didn’t thought about it.:smack: I got message like The page you requested was not found and I know I typed the correct user id. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-facebook-can-you-preview-how-a-friend-of-a-friend-sees-your-profile/555445/13 "2012-07-18T14:19:43Z")
Probably because since this thread was started Facebook has gone to the timeline format and not the old format so that method may not work any more.