To stop friends from seeing your mutual friends, you need to adjust the privacy setting that controls who can see your entire friends list on the social media platform. By making your full friends list private, others, including your friends, will not be able to view the complete list and therefore cannot easily identify your mutual connections.
How to Adjust Your Friends List Privacy
Based on the provided reference which describes navigating privacy settings, the general steps to control who sees your friends list are as follows:
- Access Settings: Start by going into your account's Settings and privacy menu.
- Find Privacy Settings: Within the settings, look for a section related to privacy or audience control. The reference mentions navigating to the Settings and visibility section.
- Locate People Finding/Contacting Settings: Tap on the option that controls "how people find and contact you".
- Find the Friends List Setting: Look for the privacy setting titled "Who can see your friends list?". The reference specifically highlights this setting as the control point.
- Check the Current Setting: The default setting is often set to Public. This means anyone, including your friends and people you aren't friends with, can see your complete list of friends.
- Change the Setting: Tap on the current setting (e.g., Public) to see the available options and select a more restrictive audience.
Understanding Privacy Options for Your Friends List
When you tap to change "Who can see your friends list?", you'll typically see several audience options. To prevent your friends from seeing your mutual friends, you must choose an option that restricts visibility from your friends. Common options include:
- Public: Anyone on or off the platform can see your full friends list.
- Friends: Only your friends can see your full friends list. (This setting will not hide mutual friends from your friends).
- Friends except...: Your friends can see your list, except for specific friends you choose to exclude. Choosing this allows you to hide your list from certain friends.
- Specific friends: Only the specific friends you select will be able to see your full friends list.
- Only Me: Only you can see your full friends list. This is the most restrictive option and effectively hides your friends list from everyone else, including all your friends.
To stop your friends from seeing your mutual friends, you generally need to select an option that restricts visibility from your friends. Choosing "Only Me" will hide your entire friends list from everyone except yourself, which prevents mutual friends from being displayed to anyone who views your profile. Alternatively, using "Friends except..." allows you to specifically hide your list from individual friends.
By changing "Who can see your friends list?" to a more private setting like "Only Me", you prevent others from viewing your full list of connections, thereby preventing the platform from displaying mutual friends based on that list comparison on your profile view.
