Control who Facebook can suggest your profile to based on your email address or phone number

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Through your privacy settings, you can control who Facebook can suggest your profile to based on your email address or phone number using the setting labelled Who can Facebook suggest your profile to based on your phone number or email address.
You can choose to limit suggestions based on your email address or phone number to:
  • Your possible connections. People who have uploaded your phone number or email address and your friends of friends.
  • Your friends of friends. Your friends of friends on Facebook who have your phone number or email address.
  • Your friends. Your friends on Facebook who have your phone number or email address.
  • No one. Your profile won't be suggested to anyone based on your phone number or email address.
Adjust who can Facebook suggest your profile to based on your phone number or email address
Adjust your settings:
  1. Click your profile picture in the top right of Facebook.
  2. Select Settings and privacy, then click Settings.
  3. Below Audience and visibility, click How people find and contact you. From here, you can adjust the relevant settings. There are separate settings for your email address and your phone number.
    • To update your email setting, click Edit to the right of People with your email address.
    • To update your phone number setting, click Edit to the right of People with your phone number.
  4. Select whether your email address or phone number can be considered as a factor in suggesting you to different groups of people who have your phone number or email address.
How these settings apply to People you may know
People you may know can help suggest you as a friend to people that you may know on Facebook. There are many factors used to determine who to include in these friend suggestions. One reason why we may suggest you to someone else is if the other person's contacts that they have uploaded to Facebook or Messenger include your phone number or email address. Learn more about how Facebook may use your information to show suggestions in People you may know.
Note: Your phone number or email address is not shared in People you may know as part of the suggestion.
Bear in mind that:
  • By default, your setting is set to Possible connections. This means that your profile might appear as a friend suggestion in People you may know to people who have uploaded your phone number or email address to Facebook.
  • Even if you restrict these settings, People you may know may suggest your profile based on information other than your email address or phone number. Learn more about what information is used to show suggestions in People you may know.
  • If someone searches for your email address or mobile phone number using Facebook's search feature, the search results won't show your profile. But if someone searches using your email address and it includes your full name, your profile may be shown in search results.
  • We'll also check this privacy setting before we confirm your profile to your friends of friends or friends when they're adding you to their business account, or if they help you recover your password and we won't provide that confirmation if your setting is restricted to exclude them.
  • You control who can see your mobile phone number or email address on your profile separately. If you choose to share your phone number or email address on your profile with an audience, everyone in that group can see it. Learn how to adjust who you share your email address or mobile phone number with.
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