Facebook's 'Lock Your Profile' feature has come to the UAE

The new feature offers users complete privacy to people who are not on their friends list

A new privacy feature from Facebook is now available to users in the UAE. Photo: Facebook

Lock Your Profile, a new Facebook feature promising users more privacy and control over their accounts, has now launched in the UAE and six other countries in the Mena region.

This means that once the feature is turned on, it will limit access to a person’s Facebook profile with items such as a profile photo and cover photo remaining “locked” so that people who aren’t friends can’t zoom in, share or download any of the images. It will also make a user’s timeline completely private except to friends.

However, this also means that any post shared or created cannot be made public unless the feature is turned off. Lock Your Profile can be turned off at any point. It’s also currently available to users in Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Turkey.

The feature is ideal for for those who would like to be more private with their online presence.

“We are committed to providing a safe platform for people to express themselves. We are deeply aware of the concerns people in Mena, particularly women, have about protecting their online profile. Today, we are announcing a new feature which, in one easy step, will give people a lot more control, ensure their privacy and keep them safe and secure online," says Cindy Southworth, head of women’s safety at Meta.

Here’s how to lock (and unlock) your Facebook profile

To enable the feature, tap on the three dots under your name. In the menu, click on the Lock Your Profile option. The next page will show you how locking works, with an option to Lock Your Profile at the bottom. Click on it. The profile is now locked. Users can also click on "settings and privacy" then "audience and visibility" and, finally, "Profile Locking", to achieve the same result.

Turning it off is just as simple. In place of the Lock Your Profile option, there's now an option to Unlock Profile. Tap on it and hit "unlock" on the next screen. Users will see a brief on how unlocking a profile works and an option to Unlock Your Profile at the bottom. Click on it and the profile will be unlocked, meaning everything will be viewable once again to those not on your friends list.