There are three basic privacy settings in Facebook groups: public, closed and private. According to them, the group owner decides who can enter and what people can see about them if they seek their names or profiles of members.
The public group, as the name says, is public. Anyone can see the group and request participation. It works the same way with the closed group, except that in the closed group only current members and guests can see what has been published in the group feed. But what about the private groups? In this case, they are even secrets. Only members and guests can see the group and ask to enter.
The tip below works for both public and closed groups. Facebook hides from the profile, but leaves a URL that reveals almost all the groups that someone is part of. You can test with the link of your profile or a friend, follow the steps below.
At the end, see the table of what is visible when it comes to Facebook groups.
How to Find Someone’s Closed Groups on Facebook
Discover your Facebook profile ID
- Access the site findmyfbid.com, it finds the ID number of Facebook profiles;
- Enter the URL of your Facebook profile (or a friend) in the text box;
- Click “Find Numeric ID”;
- The site will show a number, save that number.
If you can not see your Facebook ID number
The most common reason for this error to appear is that you (or the profile owner) need to allow search engine access to the public information on your Facebook profile page. To do this, go to the privacy settings page and let search engines find you. If the person who owns the profile does not do this, it will unfortunately not be traceable by Facebook ID.
Access the public URL of Facebook groups
- Now go to https://facebook.com/search/x/groups;
- Change the “X” by the Facebook ID number of the profile in question;
- Facebook will open a list of all the groups this person is part of.
Keep in mind, however, that secret groups do not appear in this profile search.
What are the privacy settings for groups
Closed group appears in the profile? Yes! See these and other curiosities in the table.
| Public | Closed | Secret | How to Join |
| Who can see the group and request participation? | Anyone | Anyone | Current members and anyone invited by a member |
| Who can be added or invited by a member? | Anyone who is a member’s friend or who has been invited by email to the member | Anyone who is a member’s friend or who has been invited by email to the member | Anyone who is a member’s friend or who has been invited by email to the member |
| Who can see the name of the group? | Anyone | Anyone | Current members or anyone invited by email by member |
| Who can see who is in the group? | Anyone | Anyone | Current members |
| Who can see the description of the group? | Anyone | Anyone | Current and former members |
| Who can see the location of the group? | Anyone | Anyone | Current and former members |
| Who can see what members post in the group? | Anyone | Current and invited members | Current and invited members |
| Who can find the group in the survey? | Anyone | Anyone | Current members |
| Who can see stories about the group on Facebook (eg News Feed and Search)? | Anyone | Current and invited members | Current and invited members |