Facebook is a social networking site that allows users to share photos, updates, and thoughts with friends. If someone has access to your Facebook profile, they can see all of the posts you have made and all of the comments you have made. This could potentially give them an idea who you are as a person and what you are interested in.
There are plenty of browser extensions, apps, and websites that claim to be able to tell you which of your Facebook Friends have recently visited your profile, and how much time they spent there. Unfortunately, none of these extensions or apps do what they claim.
These Browser Extensions Can’t Do What They Claim
You will not get what you want by installing one of these extensions. At best, they just don’t work, and at worst, they’re malware, stealing your information, mining Bitcoins using your browser, or otherwise doing something nefarious.
Sure, it may look legit, and it even has over 3,000 reviews and a decent average rating! But if you read the actual reviews, you’ll see an awful lot like this:
RELATED: Browser Extensions Are a Privacy Nightmare: Stop Using So Many of Them
It’s a natural instinct to wonder who’s been visiting your Facebook Profile (has that cute Canadian boy you work with checked through your photos!?) but you should absolutely never install anything, or provide any personal details or login credentials, to any service that claims to do it. There is no reliable way for them to get that data from Facebook unless they were also able to spy on all those other users.
What If I’ve Already Installed An Extension or App?
If you’ve already installed a browser extension of Facebook app that claims to let you see who’s viewed your Profile, get rid of it now. If you need help, check out our guides on uninstalling extensions from any browser and removing third-party Facebook apps. They will walk you through the full process.
RELATED: How to Secure Your Facebook Account
You should also change your Facebook password and take other steps to secure your account like adding login notifications. We’ve got a full guide on securing your Facebook account to take you through it.
The InitialChatFriendsList Method Is Also Fake
There are many websites out there that claim to show you how to see who’s visited your Facebook Profile, and most encourage you to install insecure browser extensions. A few, however, also suggest another method that you can do yourself in any browser. They tell you to view the page source of Facebook and then search for “InitialChatFriendsList”. Apparently the strings of numbers that follow it are the user IDs for the people who’ve recently visited your Profile.
Once again, however, that’s not the case. While the numbers are indeed user IDs, they’re not the people who’ve checked out your Profile. The clue is in the name: “InitialChatFriendsList”. The user IDs correspond with the people who appear in the Chat sidebar on the right hand side of Facebook.
These are the people who you’ve interacted with most recently or most often. While there’s a chance they have checked out your Profile in the last while, it’s just as likely you’ve had a conversation in Messenger or they’ve commented on one of your posts. A random person visiting your Facebook page for the first time certainly won’t show up in this list.
