Facebook No Longer Lets Users Hide Their Profiles in Search Box

New privacy setting update means users can no longer go incognito

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Facebook announced Thursday its plans to finalize the removal of the privacy setting that allows users to control who can search their name on the social-media site.

The company first rolled out its plans to eliminate the service in December 2012, PC Mag reports. Last year’s privacy-policy update ditched the security setting for members who were not using it, but now those who have the filter enabled have nowhere to hide.

The “Who can look up your Timeline by name” feature formerly allowed you to limit who could find your profile photo and basic information when they entered your name in the search bar. In an online post about removing the service, Facebook said only a “small percentage” of its almost 1.2 billion active users had enabled the setting. Members can now protect their presence primarily by limiting the audience for each specific item they post about themselves in their timeline. They can also still block specific users from contacting them and report abuse to the service.

The move is part of a greater effort to enhance its search feature, which included an upgrade to the Social Graph to allow users to search almost anything. Facebook will notify those still using the setting through a warning post, and from now on will feature a reminder notice when a user is posting something publicly.

[Associated Press]