How to tell if someone is stalking your Facebook page

Social media is a great tool for connecting with friends and family around the world. You can share your travels, favorite restaurants, anniversaries, professional accomplishments and more. But with the joy of sharing also comes risk. Other users may bookmark your site. This could be because they like your posts or something more sinister.

What exactly is Facebook stalking? Should you be worried? Do you know who is watching your profile? In this article we will discuss all the answers to your questions.

What is stalking on Facebook?

Stalking on Facebook has various degrees. Perhaps someone you just met is interested in getting to know you a little better. In that case, they may be browsing your news page and old posts. Others may not know you, but are interested in your posts, so they scroll through.

Another version of stalking is when someone regularly checks your activity to see where you are and what you are doing.

Regardless of why a person is checking you, Facebook does not give us the "who is looking at my profile?" option. However, there are still several ways to find out who is checking your Facebook profile.

Here are the techniques we know of to assess whether someone is stalking your Facebook account.

Check your stories

In 2017, Facebook introduced Stories, following the path set by Snapchat and Instagram. You can create a Story to post a montage of images and publish it for your friends to see. Stories can only be viewed within 24 hours. You can track how many people are looking at it and seeing it Who Show Changes.

Yes, you can weed out a stalker by posting a Story and seeing who checks it. The downside is that if your stalker knows how Facebook relationships work, they will avoid them. If they're not so savvy, you can catch them. (For a complete guide to this technique, see our tutorial on How to find out who has been watching your Facebook story.)

Look for new likes and comments under old posts

Facebook notifies you when someone likes or comments on one of your posts. If a (somewhat unaware) stalker is trying to please you, they may be viewing, liking and commenting on old material. This shows that they are methodically reviewing your feed - a definite red flag for a stalker.

Someone who appears in your groups

If another user keeps showing up in the groups you belong to, this is a clear sign of a lurker. What are the chances that someone likes the same ethnic cuisine group, the same group of obscene jokes, the same local parenting club and the same group of dog breed fans? This is one way to detect a more subtle stalker who will not go around unknowingly liking your content.

It's a good idea to check the membership lists of the groups you've joined. Facebook shows you people who are with you in other groups when you look at their names on the list. Here's how:

1. Simply go to the group's page and click Members Section.
   
2. This will display a list of group members, and Facebook will put the people with whom you have connections (friends or shared group memberships) at the top for easy checking. Use Search bar to search for people you suspect are stalking you.
   

If you spot the same Facebook user in several groups, they may be stalking you. Even if they are not your Facebook friends, they can see all your posts and comments in the group.

Unexpected invitations to friends

Some people receive dozens of friend invitations every day, while others receive a new invitation only when they meet someone new in real life. Regardless, if you are receiving friend invitations from someone you don't know, it might as well be a stalker trying to get into your inner circle. Be especially suspicious of friend requests from someone you KNOW, but haven't seen or contacted in a long time.

Stalkers sometimes create fake accounts, first befriending a friend and then sending an invitation to become friends.

Defense against stalking

The best defense is a good offense, and the easiest way to defend against stalkers is to know everyone on your friends list. Many Facebook users take a completely different approach; they have hundreds or thousands of friends on Facebook and almost every request to add a friend's name is accepted automatically. This is fine if you want to manage your online life this way, but if you are seriously worried about stalking, such an open-door policy will help prevent your account from being stalked.

To get a stalker-proof profile, you need to do two things.

One, whip your List of friends to people with whom you have real relationships and whom you know are not stalking you. This doesn't have to be limited to your real-life friends; if you know someone well online, you probably trust them at least to the extent that they are part of your online circle.

Second, get rid of your followers. Facebook by default allows almost anyone to follow you, but you can change this setting. We recommend setting your follower permissions to allow only your friends to watch you. This can be easily done:

1. Go to settings.
   
2. Select Public Posts from the left sidebar.
   
3. In the "Who can watch me" section, select "Friends."
   

If you're seriously worried that someone might be stalking you on Facebook, or if you feel uncomfortable when someone views your Facebook page, it's important to be careful about everything you post.

Don't post anything online that you would most likely end up regretting. Most importantly, don't share any photos, videos or information that you shouldn't share. Think before you write; the Internet is more dangerous than we think.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are answers to more questions about Facebook stalkers.

Can I see who has viewed my Facebook profile?

While there is a workaround to see who is visiting your profile, our June 2022 tests show that this is not always a reliable way to see who is visiting your profile.

But if you want to explore this, do the following:

1. open Facebook in the Chrome browser and right-click an empty space. Click See source page In the drop-down menu.

2. use Control + F (Command + F for Mac users) to search for "buddies."

3. to the right of the word "Buddy" you will see "ID" and a number. Double-click the number and copy it.

4 Open a new tab. Type "Facebook.com/" and paste the number after the /. Then press enter. The person's profile will appear.

Use the up and down arrows in the Control + F dialog box to search for the next person.

Unfortunately, this did not reveal any pursuers, as each user only appeared once. In addition, there were several users browsing the Facebook page we used in this example who did not appear at all. Finally, there was no date or pattern indicating when or how often a user visited our page.

Is there another company's service to help us find our pursuers?

Of course! But we usually do not recommend these services. For starters, you may have to pay for the information, and as explained in the question above, you can find the same information yourself.

In addition, third-party services may pose a security risk to your account.

Final thoughts

Do you know other ways to detect a Facebook stalker? Tell us about them below if you do!

Online privacy is a serious issue, and we have resources to help you defend yourself.