Facebook does not show you a list of who is viewing your profile
Facebook does not provide a feature that lets you see who has looked at your profile or checked your account. This is a common misconception, and it leads people to download third-party apps or visit websites that claim to reveal profile visitors — but those tools do not work and often expose your account to theft or malware.
What Facebook does track is different: it knows when someone visits your profile page directly (not just sees your posts in their feed), but it keeps that information private. You cannot access it, and neither can the person visiting. The only exception is your own activity — you can see your own login history and active sessions, which shows you where and when your account was accessed.
If you are concerned that someone has accessed your account without permission, or if you want to control who can see your profile in the first place, there are real steps you can take. Those steps live in your privacy settings, not in third-party apps.
Key Takeaways
- No legitimate Facebook feature shows you who viewed your profile, and apps claiming to do so are scams or malware.
- You can see your own login history and active sessions under Settings > Security and Login, which shows device type, location, and time of access.
- If you see an unfamiliar login, you can end that session immediately and change your password from the same menu.
- To control who can see your profile, use Settings > Privacy to limit who can search for you, message you, or see your posts and friends list.
- Two-factor authentication (a code sent to your phone or email when someone logs in) is the strongest way to prevent unauthorized access.
How to check your own login history and active sessions
Go to Settings > Security and Login. Under "Where you are logged in," you will see a list of all devices currently connected to your account. Each entry shows the device type (mobile, web browser, etc.), the approximate location based on IP address, and the last time that device was active.
If you see a device you do not recognize — a location you have never been, a phone model you do not own, or activity at a time you were asleep — you can click "Not you?" next to that session. Facebook will end that login immediately and ask you to change your password. Do both.
Below the active sessions list, you will see "Your logins" or "Login activity," which is a historical log. This shows every time someone (or something) logged into your account, going back weeks or months. The log includes failed login attempts, so if you see many attempts from one location or device, that is a sign someone has your password and is trying to get in.
What to do if you see unfamiliar login activity
If you spot a login you did not make, end that session immediately by clicking "Not you?" next to it. Then go to Settings > Security and Login > Change Password and create a new, strong password — one you have never used before and that does not appear in any other account.
After you change your password, check your email and phone number on file. Go to Settings > Personal Information and confirm that the email address and phone number listed are ones you recognize and control. If someone has changed them, change them back right away. A hacker who controls your recovery email can lock you out of your own account.
If you have a smartphone, turn on two-factor authentication. Go to Settings > Security and Login > Two-Factor Authentication and choose whether you want a code sent to your phone via text or generated by an authenticator app. This means that even if someone has your password, they cannot log in without that code.
How to limit who can see your profile and contact you
Go to Settings > Privacy. The main controls are:
- Who can see your posts: Set this to "Friends" if you want only people you have added to see what you share. "Public" means anyone on the internet can see it.
- Who can contact you: Set this to "Friends" to block messages from strangers. If it is set to "Everyone," anyone can message you, and those messages may not appear in your main inbox.
- Who can search for you: This controls whether your name appears in Facebook's search results. Set it to "Friends" to hide from people who are not connected to you.
- Who can see your friends list: Go to Settings > Privacy and scroll to "Who can see your friends list?" Set it to "Friends" or "Only me" to keep that information private.
These settings do not prevent someone who is already your friend from seeing your profile — they only control who can find you in the first place and what strangers can see.
Why third-party apps that claim to show profile visitors are fake
Apps and websites that promise to reveal who viewed your profile work by asking you to log in through Facebook. When you do, you give that app permission to access your account data. The app then either sells that access to advertisers, harvests your personal information, or uses your account to spam your friends. Facebook's terms of service forbid apps from accessing profile visitor data because that data does not exist in a form apps can retrieve.
If you have already logged into one of these apps, go to Settings > Apps and Websites > Logged in with Facebook and remove it immediately. Then change your Facebook password.
What Facebook does track about your activity
Facebook knows a lot about you, but it does not share profile visitor lists. What it does track includes:
- When you log in and from where (visible to you in your login history).
- Which posts you like, comment on, or share.
- Which profiles you visit (but this is not shown to anyone, including you).
- What you search for on Facebook (visible only to you, under your search history).
- Your location, if you have location services turned on.
None of this information is shared with other users. Facebook uses it to show you targeted ads and to recommend friends, but it does not create a "who viewed me" list because doing so would change how people use the platform — many people would stop browsing if they knew they were leaving a visible trace.
Frequently Asked Questions
If someone unfriended me, can I see when they did it?
No. Facebook does not notify you when someone unfriends you, and there is no log of when it happened. You will notice only when you try to visit their profile and cannot, or when you realize they are no longer in your friends list. Some third-party apps claim to track unfriends, but they work by comparing your friends list to a snapshot they took earlier — they do not have access to Facebook's data.
Can I tell if someone is stalking my profile?
Not through Facebook itself. If someone visits your profile repeatedly, you will not know. However, if you notice someone liking or commenting on all your posts shortly after you post them, that is a sign they are checking your profile frequently. If this concerns you, you can block that person or adjust your privacy settings to limit what they can see.
Does Facebook notify people when I visit their profile?
No. When you visit someone's profile, they do not receive a notification. The only exception is if you interact with their content — like, comment, or share — in which case they see that action in their notifications, but not that you visited their profile page itself.
What if I think my account has been hacked?
Check your login history immediately under Settings > Security and Login. If you see logins you did not make, end those sessions and change your password. If you cannot access your account at all, go to facebook.com/login/identify and follow the steps to recover it. Facebook will ask you to verify your identity using a phone number or email address on file.
Is two-factor authentication really necessary?
It is the single most effective way to prevent someone from accessing your account, even if they have your password. Without it, a password is enough to log in. With it, a hacker also needs your phone or authenticator app. Most account breaches happen because passwords are weak or reused — two-factor authentication closes that gap.