Disable Facebook Places in 3 Easy Steps [How To]

Disable Facebook Places in 3 Easy Steps [How To]

Facebook has introduced a new feature called Places and like everything Facebook seems to do lately it leaves us all feeling a little more paranoid and less secure than we did before. The thought of your friends checking you in at your therapist may not be something you want everyone to know. You might like going to the therapist, but you may not want anyone knowing how often you spend your time there talking about your iPhone addiction. So, if you’re anxious to find out how to turn off Facebook Places, read on.

Disable Facebook Places in 3 Easy Steps [How To]

Step 1

Log in to your Facebook account. Click on the Account menu at the top right hand side of the page and choose Privacy Settings from the drop-down list. You will see a table showing your current privacy settings.

Disable Facebook Places in 3 Easy Steps [How To]

On the left hand side of the table locate and choose Custom. You should now see “Customize Settings” with a small pencil on its left at the bottom of the table. Click it.

Step 2

The last two items in the “Things I Share” section of the custom settings page are “Places I check in” and “Include me in ‘People Here Now’ after I check in.” Change the “Places I check in” to “Only Me” and only you will ever be able to see your check ins.
Disable Facebook Places in 3 Easy Steps [How To]

You must also make sure that you uncheck the box next to “Include me in ‘People Here Now’ after I check in.” This will prevent your profile picture from appearing on a list of people at a particular location.

Disable Facebook Places in 3 Easy Steps [How To]

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Step 3

Now go to the next section on this page, Things others share. Look for “Friends can check me in to Places” and change it to say “Disabled. ”

Disable Facebook Places in 3 Easy Steps [How To]

Now that you have made these changes to your settings your friends cannot check you into places on your behalf. Now the only person who can check you in somewhere is you, and once you do that the fact that you’re there is only visible to you and no one else on Facebook.

About the author

dwmartin

David W. Martin has more than 20 years of experience in the industry as a programmer, systems and business analyst, author, and consultant. David has written for CNET's iPhoneatlas.com and MacLife.com he currently writes for CultofMac.com and BYTE.com. He comes to Cult of Mac's website with deep knowledge and passion for the all things Apple. Follow David on Twitter @david_w_martin.

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Posted in How-To |

  • Jesse

    Thanks!

    Offtopic: What the hell is that awefull ‘media’ bar at the top doing on this page and please please, how do I turn it off completely!? I hate those things.

  • sangony

    Just changed my privacy settings as specified. Worked great!

  • http://www.hamsashawls.com/ Sylvia

    Thanks so very much for these timely guidelines! Worked perfectly.

  • xsa

    Thank you– very clear and complete.

  • Dave

    After making the changes, what’s the point of checking in somewhere if only you can see it?

  • Brooke

    This is great, thanks. I don’t mind my friends seeing the places I check in to, and I won’t be checking in to EVERY place I go, but I don’t want my friends checking me in to places (thereby announcing that I’m not at home); I want that control. So I left Places on but disabled my friends’ ability to check me in.

  • TheBrew

    Amazing that this isn’t disabled per default.

    How many times do you need to catch your GF/BF screwing around before you dump her/him? Oh well, it’s your life :)

  • JDS

    Thanks. Excellent tutorial. I wish facebook would do this.

  • Calvin E. Weissenfluh

    I would like to completely disengage myself from FaceBook. Is this possible and, if so, please tell me how to do it.

    calvin

  • http://junetrish@yahoo.c0me junetrish

    i want to be totally out about of facebook! itsw like i am totallykidnappened to face back to facebook.i may need a lawyer if you dont disable my connect me from my account.
    trish hargis

  • Bri

    Dave- your question is like asking, “What’s the point of cutting yourself if you don’t want to bleed?”

  • Anonymous

    I have disabled (unchecked) the “People Here Now” box on FB and I still show up in it. Also tried rechecking it and disabling, still no luck. Any ideas on how to disable it? Could it have something to do with the new FB format? Thanks.

  • http://slrman.wordpress.com James Smith

    Even easier is don’t use Facebook.  You know the steal your information and sell it to the highest bidder.  Privacy is difficult enough these days without begging someone to screw you over about it. 

    Facebook is for fools.