Question from Ellen: I read your post explaining how to hide my friends list from the public on Facebook.
I thought it was a good idea so I followed your instructions and hid mine, but I just found out that all of my friends can still see a list of the friends we have in common (i.e. our mutual friends).
The problem is I’m friends with several people who are jealous of one another and they get upset because I’m friends with those people too. And of course that makes ME upset.
How do I hide the list of our mutual friends from the people I’m friends with on Facebook?
Rick’s answer: I certainly understand your situation Ellen, but unfortunately there’s no setting available that will prevent your Facebook friends from seeing who your mutual friends are.
While you can easily hide your entire friends list from strangers, Facebook won’t allow you to hide your mutual friends list from the people you’re friends with.
And truth be told, even if you could hide your mutual friends that wouldn’t really prevent your friends from figuring out which friends the two of you have in common. All they’d have to do is look at your Timeline to see who is interacting with your posts.
Most Facebook users have the privacy level for their posts set to “Friends” these days, and I’m guessing you probably have yours set that way too since you seem to be concerned about privacy (as well you should be).
If you indeed have the privacy level for your posts set to “Friends” then anyone who has interacted with any of the posts on your Timeline must obviously be your friend on Facebook.
Bottom line: While hiding your Facebook friends list from the public is a great idea (and I strongly recommend it), it really wouldn’t help all that much to hide your list of mutual friends from the people you’re friends with. I’m guessing that’s why Facebook doesn’t even make that option available.
I wish I had better news for you Ellen, but I’m afraid I just don’t. I wish you the very best.
Bonus tip: This post explains why there’s really no such thing as privacy on Facebook.