When You Look at Someone's Profile on Facebook, Will She Know?

A Facebook person's profile, or timeline, is a list of her posts, likes, photos and other Facebook activity going back to the beginning of her account. Being friends with a person doesn't guarantee that you can see all of her posts. Certain posts may be restricted to particular groups, networks or people. The posts you're allowed to see will be displayed as you scroll down through her timeline.

Many websites claim to offer software to help you know who's looking at your timeline. These programs don't work; Facebook is designed so that you are anonymous when you view pages -- no one knows which pages you view unless you make posts. Apps may promise to help you find who's looking at your timeline, but these are just a scam to get you to install them and share your information.

If you like or comment on a person's page, she will get a notification about the interaction; she will know you've looked at her timeline. As you scroll through posts, take care to make sure you don't accidentally click "Like" on an item. If you do, click "unlike" right away to remove the notification from her alerts. Comment notifications can't be removed, since they're emailed to a user's email account.

Even though the person whose profile you're looking at has no way of knowing you were on his timeline, Facebook knows. All site activities, including the profiles you visit, are recorded by Facebook. This information, however, will not be shared with anyone. People who access your browsing history from your computer will also know which profiles you've visited unless you delete your history.