When you post status there is a select button on the right bottom side which brings up a menu specifying your audience: public, friends, select person/s etc., something like that, I try and limit posts sometimes but I don't know if it works.
I once posted a comment that I though was private on an article published on another site, it was very embarrassing.... just as I posted I notice a small checkbox under the comment field saying, share on facebook, and then noticed that I was actually logged into that site with my Facebook ID.
I wanted to die.
I managed to delete the comment on my wall but it had gone onto the FB newsfeed, publicly!
There seems to be no way to delete newsfeed to limit damage in such circumstances, but I think it is possible to select your audience before you make a status update, tho not like and comments.
You can only filter your own news feed.
You cannot stop this from happening, because the photo belongs to your friend and not to you, and therefore only he/she is the one that determines who sees posts and comments by other people (such as you) on his/her timeline.
The setting that your friend can use to control this visibility is:
Account Settings | Timeline and Tagging | Who can see things on my timeline? | Who can see what others post on your timeline?
However, when viewing other people's posts inside your News Feed, you have the ability to see with what scope that item was published, and this information might help you make a more informed decision regarding whether or not to comment on that item.
At the end of the line offering Like, Comment, and Share options, there is a little icon indicating "Shared with". If you hover over it, you will see something similar to one of the following:
- Shared with: Public
- Shared with: X's friends
- Shared with: X's friends of friends
- Shared with: Members of group-X
This information might help you estimate an "upper bound" for how "far" your comment might be seen. For example, if the photo was shared with "Public", then anyone on Facebook that will directly visit the photo will see your comment, and -- depending on the setting your friend chose for "Who can see what others post on your timeline?" -- a very large number of that person's friends (or even friends-of-friends) will also see your comment in their News Feeds!
Keep in mind, however, that your friend can change the privacy setting for an individual post retroactively! A post that was initially shared with only a small set of friends might one day become shared with Public.
So, the bottom-line recommendation is:
Before posting anything (including comments) to a social network such as Facebook, always consider the possibility that it might be seen (if not now then maybe later) by perfect strangers or, even worse, by antagonists.
Best Answer
You cannot change that no.
However, you can see what the privacy settings for that post are. Underneath every post in Facebook is a little icon, showing who can see that post. When you hover over it, it will tell you in more detail what the icon means. A globe means the post is Public (anyone can see it), 2 little persons mean only friends, the same 2 persons, but the right one in a lighter gray means friends except people who you added to the Acquaintances list, a padlock means only you, and a gear symbol means custom settings, which you can figure out by hovering over it.
If your friend has made his post Public, your friends could end up seeing it. If it is Custom, it is also possible they could see it, but it's not sure, unless it tells you when you hover over it. There used to be a Friends of Friends setting too, which also allowed your friends to see it, but that seems no longer available.