Facebook does not have a feature that shows users who has viewed their profile recently using the Facebook app or website. However, because this question is asked so often, clickbait and fake pages exist that claim it’s possible by following several steps or downloading an app.

The websites or blogs making these claims are deceiving users to get visitors or help spread spyware or other malware. The following sections contain information to help clear up misconceptions on how to see if someone is looking at your profile.

You can view who’s looked at your profile through the source code

No, you cannot. Numerous posts claim you can display who’s viewed your profile in the source code, by looking for a keyword (e.g., InitialChatFriendsList) to identify users by looking up their Facebook ID. These Facebook IDs are related to your Facebook friends and don’t mean they’ve viewed your Facebook profile, only that they are part of your friends.

I can tell someone viewed my profile because they liked a post

When you make a post or share something on Facebook, it may or may not be shown in your friend’s timeline, depending on Facebook’s algorithm. While they may have seen that post, that doesn’t mean they viewed your Facebook profile. It’s more likely they viewed it through the timeline since that’s how most people use Facebook.

If the Facebook algorithm didn’t show your post on your friend’s timeline, then they viewed the post through your profile. However, there’s no way to know what the Facebook algorithm does or does not show on someone’s timeline.

It’s possible if you use a special browser extensions

No. A browser extension or add-on has the same access to Facebook that you do. Furthermore, it can’t use a special method to find information that does not exist. Any browser extension, add-on, or other software that requires you to download something claiming to have this ability is likely spyware or otherwise malicious.

I can use special JavaScript code to show who has viewed my page

There are a some posts containing JavaScript code that claim it can show who has viewed your Facebook profile. For the few code examples that run, all they’re doing is looking at the source code of your profile and grabbing any found Facebook IDs. As mentioned previously, these IDs are those of friends who may or may not have viewed your profile.

Facebook asks if you find a browser extension, add-on, or other download that claims to have this ability to report it, so it can be removed.

If one of your friends opens a link to another website or video you shared, it could be possible to track them through another website. However, this still doesn’t tell you if they viewed your profile, because it’s more likely they saw the post in their timeline and not through your profile.

Why won’t Facebook let you see who views your profile?

Other social networking sites like LinkedIn can show you who has viewed your profile. However, as we stated above, Facebook does not. They’ve never officially mentioned why, but it’s likely Facebook would see less user engagement because users tend to be more cautious about their actions when they know they’re being tracked. Fewer clicks would result in less traffic and ad revenue.

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