Free Guide To Changing Your Facebook Location Settings

Why Your Facebook Location Settings Matter More Than You Think

Your location on Facebook is one of the most personal pieces of information you share online. Unlike your name or profile picture, which you intentionally display, your location settings control what Facebook knows about where you are and what it broadcasts to others. The choices you make here affect three separate concerns: what people see about you, what advertisers know about you, and what information Facebook itself collects.

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Many people treat Facebook location settings as a set-it-and-forget-it feature, but that approach misses something important. Facebook has changed its location tools multiple times over the past decade, and the default settings are often more permissive than most users realize. A 2023 Pew Research study found that 68% of Facebook users were unaware they had location features enabled at all. This matters because location data isn't just about knowing someone's address—it's about building patterns of behavior that reveal where you work, where you shop, which doctors you visit, and where you spend your free time.

Your location shows up in multiple places across Facebook simultaneously. It appears on your profile under your name. It influences which ads you see. It gets shared with apps and websites you use through Facebook login. It even factors into Facebook's own data collection and sale practices. Understanding these different locations—and knowing you can change them independently—is the first step toward having actual control over your Facebook privacy.

What to know before you start: Changing your location settings won't delete your past activity or retroactively prevent data that's already been collected. What it will do is change what happens going forward. Think of it less like cleaning a house and more like locking the front door after someone's already been inside.

The Three Location Settings You Actually Control

Facebook presents location information in different ways depending on where you're looking. This is partly intentional design—Facebook separates these settings so users have granular control—but it also means people often change one setting and miss the others entirely. Understanding which setting does what is essential before you start making changes.

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Your Current City (Profile Location): This is the most visible location setting. It's what appears on your profile page, visible to whoever can see your profile. You set this manually, and Facebook doesn't automatically update it. If you moved three years ago but never changed your profile, Facebook still shows your old city. This setting is purely informational—it's what you tell people about where you live. You can set it to any city in the world, keep it vague, or remove it entirely.

Home and Work Locations: These are separate from your current city setting. Many users don't realize these exist because they're tucked deeper in the settings menu. You can add specific home and work addresses, and these are visible to different audiences depending on your privacy settings. Unlike your current city, which is just a city name, home and work locations can include your exact street address if you choose to enter it that detailed. This is where many privacy concerns originate—someone could theoretically learn your exact home address if your settings allow it.

Location Services (Device-Based Tracking): This is where your phone's actual GPS and location data come in. When you use the Facebook app on your phone, it can request permission to access your device's location services. This is separate from what you manually entered. Even if your profile says you live in Denver, location services might ping your phone in Boulder. Facebook uses this data for features like location-tagged posts and location-based advertising, but also collects it for its own data purposes.

Practical takeaway: Spend 10 minutes identifying which of these three settings apply to you. Do you have all three enabled? Just one? Knowing what's currently active is the foundation for any changes you want to make.

Finding Your Location Settings on Desktop Facebook

The path to location settings on desktop Facebook isn't obvious, and Facebook intentionally places privacy controls where they're not immediately visible. The company argues this protects settings from accidental changes; others argue it means fewer people change them. Either way, here's where to look.

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Start by clicking the downward-facing arrow in the top right corner of your Facebook page (it's next to your name and profile picture). From the dropdown menu, select "Settings and privacy," then click "Settings." You'll land on a page titled "Settings" with a left sidebar containing various categories. Look for "Personal information" in that sidebar. This section contains your basic profile data including your current city and hometown.

In the Personal Information section, you'll see fields for "Current City," "Hometown," and potentially "Home" and "Work" locations depending on whether you've filled these in before. Click on any of these fields to edit them. You can change the text, remove it entirely, or adjust the privacy level by clicking the audience selector next to each field (it usually shows a symbol like a globe, a group of people, or a lock).

For location services specifically, you need to look in a different section. From the main Settings page, scroll down the left sidebar and find "Apps and websites" or "Location." The exact name varies depending on your account age and region. This section shows which apps have permission to access your location and lets you turn those permissions on or off.

A less obvious but important location setting lives under "Ad preferences." Facebook uses your location for targeted advertising, and while you can't prevent this entirely, you can see and edit what location data Facebook thinks it has about you. From Settings, look for "Ads" in the left sidebar, then click "Ad preferences." You'll see a section called "Location-based advertising" or similar, where you can view and edit the locations Facebook associates with you.

Practical takeaway: Bookmark or screenshot the exact path to your location settings now: Settings → Personal Information → [Field Name]. This makes it easy to revisit later, and knowing the path means you're less likely to accidentally skip a setting.

Finding Your Location Settings on Mobile Facebook

The mobile version of Facebook handles location settings differently than desktop, partly because smartphones have their own location permissions that operate independently of Facebook's settings. This creates a two-layer system that confuses many users: Facebook's internal location settings plus your phone's system-level permissions.

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On the mobile Facebook app, start by tapping the menu icon (three horizontal lines) in the bottom right corner. Scroll down and tap "Settings and privacy," then "Settings." You'll see the same categories as desktop, but the layout is vertical and condensed. Tap "Personal information" to find your current city and home/work locations. The editing process is identical—tap the field, change it, and adjust the privacy level.

For location services on mobile, the process is slightly different because your phone's operating system controls these permissions. Go to your phone's main Settings app (not Facebook Settings). Look for "Privacy" or "Apps and permissions" depending on whether you're on iOS or Android. Find Facebook in the list of apps, then look for "Location." You'll see options like "Always," "While using the app," "Only this time," or "Never." Most people should select "While using the app" or "Never" rather than "Always," which allows Facebook to track your location even when the app is closed.

Important distinction: Turning off location services in your phone's settings prevents Facebook from accessing your device's GPS entirely. However, Facebook can still infer your location from other data like which WiFi networks you connect to, which cell towers your phone pings, and your IP address. Turning off device location permissions is still worthwhile, but it doesn't mean Facebook has zero location knowledge.

The mobile app also shows location differently in certain features. If you use location-tagged posts or Stories, you'll see a location option appear during posting. You can disable location tagging for individual posts, or you can adjust the setting more broadly in the mobile app's camera settings.

Practical takeaway: Check both Facebook Settings and your phone's system Settings for location permissions. Many people change one and forget the other, leaving gaps in their privacy approach.

What Each Privacy Audience Level Actually Means for Location

When you adjust your location information on Facebook, each field has an audience selector next to it. These small icons represent who can see that information, but they're not always clear about what "clear" or "restricted" actually means in practice. Understanding audience levels prevents the common mistake of thinking something is private when it's actually public.

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Public (Globe Icon): This means anyone on the internet