Is there a way to view public Facebook posts without signing up?

Forums › Social networks, social media and tools › Is there a way to view public Facebook posts without signing up?

Rikkitic

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#253012 21-Jul-2019 15:56

A friend of mine, who knows how to use a computer but is non-technical, wants to share news and photos of his extended trip overseas with me from his Facebook account. I am not a Facebook member and I refuse to become one, but I thought it was possible to view links without signing up. But when I click on the link he sent me, I only get an old version of what I imagine is his Home page, and every other link wants me to subscribe. Is there a way around this?

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#2280859 21-Jul-2019 16:47

Probably not. Isn't it a privacy setting with the person who is posting the updates.

Rikkitic

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#2280912 21-Jul-2019 17:49

I have no idea. I know nothing about Facebook, except I want nothing to do with it.

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tdgeek

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#2280919 21-Jul-2019 18:29

mattwnz:

Probably not. Isn't it a privacy setting with the person who is posting the updates.

Mate you are not allowed to use the words privacy and facebook in the same sentence. Im sure there is a law on that. :-)

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#2281035 22-Jul-2019 04:55

As long as it’s public you can see it. I have done sports club ones I use rss-bridge to parse and read via rss reader.

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Rikkitic

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#2281096 22-Jul-2019 09:14

Then my friend must be doing something wrong at his end. All I get is his home page (if that's what it is) with a handful of old small pictures on it. I can't find any way to get to the collections he wants me to see. Every link just throws up the subscribe form.

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trig42

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#2281098 22-Jul-2019 09:18

He has to change the privacy settings on his album to Public. By default it will be Friends Only.

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1101

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#2281101 22-Jul-2019 09:21

Just bite the bullet & sign up. You dont have to give facebook your real info , apart from email. You could get another free gmail a/c & give that to FB

I signed up with a fake name (my nickname) , fake birthday & fake personal details , just to get access to some of the local hobby groups that had moved onto FB.

Rikkitic

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#2281112 22-Jul-2019 09:35

I know how to do that kind of thing but I don't want FB infecting my computer. It is also a matter of principle.

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djtOtago

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#2281317 22-Jul-2019 13:25

trig42:

He has to change the privacy settings on his album to Public. By default it will be Friends Only.

Even when it is set to public, you will still need to be logged in to Facebook to see Album. Public just means you don't have to be Friends.

DaveDog

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#2281318 22-Jul-2019 13:25

Maybe sharing the images etc in another medium might be a better option?

Rikkitic:

I know how to do that kind of thing but I don't want FB infecting my computer. It is also a matter of principle.

Rikkitic

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#2281326 22-Jul-2019 13:32

Not an option. He and the millions of other people he knows are all in the Facebook ecosystem.

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DaveDog

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#2281327 22-Jul-2019 13:35

I think you're between a rock and a hard place I'm afraid ... I agree with one of the earlier posters that it's likely that even set to public you will need to login to see the content... I guess the next step is deciding just how badly you want to see this content...

Rikkitic:

Not an option. He and the millions of other people he knows are all in the Facebook ecosystem.

Oblivian

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#2281424 22-Jul-2019 14:12

Not sure if it still exists. And it was well hidden

But there was a dropdown for this (web interface only) on each album to 'get link' that would end up public facing for this very task.

May still be able to get the embed code from albums and remove the iframe junk to get the raw public facing URL.

More so on public 'pages' you administer (I do this on my own one). But for a time it was on personal too to allow such a feature.

But they may have removed it to attempt to assimilate more

The URL I would expect to see would be similar to /media/set/?set=<hashforthestoragespace>

1101

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#2281955 23-Jul-2019 09:09

Rikkitic:

...but I don't want FB infecting my computer. It is also a matter of principle.

Then dont use FB , dont try & access FB.
cant have it both ways :-)

I used to be the same, not wanting to sign up to FB. In the end, I wanted access to private FB pages so I had to sign up.

surfisup1000

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#2282056 23-Jul-2019 10:12

Fake account, for the purposes of just seeing your friends posts.

You want to bank, but don't want to use internet banking, you want to do social media, but you don't want to join facebook (or other).

I get wanting to protect your security and privacy, but you can mitigate these things by being careful.

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