Can You Really See People Who Visited Your Facebook Profile? Here's The Explanation!

Facebook doesn't allow people to track who viewed their profile. (photo: Glen Carrie / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Facebook users around the world often wonder if they can be notified of anyone who views their Facebook profile?

The reason is, in the online store there are dozens of applications and services that claim to allow Facebook users to view their profiles. However, the question now is, is there really some kind of way to know who viewed your Facebook profile?

Compiled from MakeUsOf, Wednesday, July 14, Facebook has confirmed this in an answer in its Help Center. "No, Facebook doesn't allow people to track who viewed their profile. Third-party apps can't provide this functionality either. If you come across an app that claims to offer this capability, report the app", Facebook said.

There are many things that Facebook tracks, including location, browsing history, and various other habits. The problem is, Facebook doesn't do all of this tracking information for fellow users. But, for the needs of the company's advertising platform. Therefore, this information is not available to search users.

In fact, the only social media that provides this service is LinkedIn. Users who do not have a premium account often receive a notification that their profile has been viewed. To find out who has viewed their LinkedIn profile, they can subscribe to a premium plan.

In contrast, Facebook does not offer this information to users. This may be due to the fact that LinkedIn is a professional network, while Facebook is mostly private.

Offering the option to view profile visitors on Facebook will likely deter people from using the service. So the company doesn't offer that information through any app or publicly viewable source code.

So, if there's no way to see who has viewed a profile, why do so many apps claim they can see it?

Be careful, because many of those apps are related to data collection. Evidenced by the Cambridge Analytica Scandal which highlighted how much information can be collected through the application. Facebook has cracked down on a lot of dodgy apps, but there's always been an escape.

This app uses user data to sell to advertising companies. The worst case is that the app is actually camouflaging malware. This latter case is particularly worrying, as malware can be used to access credit card information and other sensitive data.

Neither of these apps is legit and Facebook advises users to immediately report any app that claims to offer this feature.

For information, if the user has installed one of these applications, they must immediately restore their privacy by revoking the permission of the third-party application on Facebook.