Many people do not know that they can be found on Facebook via their telephone number, which is another way how reverse phone lookup can be done online. Even if you have specified that your telephone number may not be shown on your profile, the option that everyone can look you up via this number is on by default. That’s how you turn it off.
Facebook wants to know as much as possible about you, including your phone number. If you did not specify this when creating an account, Facebook will regularly ask you to enter the number when logging in. In addition, the social medium asks you whether you want to display this number on your profile. Even if you choose ‘no’, the option is on by default that everyone can search for you via the number in the Facebook search bar.
You can easily check whether you can be found using your telephone number. In the search bar, type 00316 and then your phone number without 06 in front of it: if your phone number is 0612345678, type 0031612345678.
If you do this, the profile of the person to whom this number is linked will be automatically displayed.
Why is this feature useful for you?
Let’s say you get a call and you have no idea who the phone number is that appears on your screen. Then there is a good chance that you can find out via Facebook who called you. It can also be useful if you have someone’s number, but can’t find a Facebook profile of that person. Furthermore: if someone has an anonymous Facebook account, you can easily find out about this account this way.
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Why do you want to turn off this function anyway?
It is, of course, useful if you can search for people, but there are also many disadvantages. With the necessary searching, strangers can find out your number by searching smartly on Facebook and pass it on to all kinds of others. In addition, you can see which Facebook account is linked via a telephone number. For example, if you have created a Facebook page under a different name to respond under a false name under messages, then you fall through the basket thanks to this search function.
How to turn it off
On Facebook via your smartphone, you can turn off the option in four steps.
Step 1. If you have opened facebook’s app, click on the three dashes in the bottom right and then click on “Settings” in this menu
Step 2. In the next menu, click on “Account Settings”
Step 3. Click on “Privacy”
Step 4. Scroll down and in the option “Who can you search for using the phone number you have provided?” no longer choose “everyone”, but for example “friends”.