Facebook privacy update makes nearly everyone searchable

Facebook tweaked its privacy settings Thursday and eliminated the option that allows users to hide from search.

The "Who can look up your Timeline by name?" setting is officially retired as the social network completes the transition to Graph Search.

Those who didn't have the option selected saw it disappear from their privacy settings already, as the company announced in December it would phase the option out. Those users who were still utilizing the setting to prevent being looked up by name will see a message from Facebook on their homepage informing them of the update.

With the opt-out gone, all users will be searchable -- other than minors and those who have blocked you.

"The best way to control what people can find about you is to choose the audience of the individual things you share," the company wrote on its blog.

Users can still control the privacy of their posts, using the settings Public, Friends, Only Me or a custom group. Although individual timelines will all be searchable, the content on those timelines can still remain private.

To remind people how to control the privacy of their Facebook posts, any user sharing an item publicly will see a pop-up reminding them the post will be publicly visible.

Users can also go to their activity log to change who can see previously shared posts on their Timeline, and they can hide or delete posts altogether.