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How to appear invisible to certain people in Facebook chat

Sometimes you just want a bit of extra privacy. If you want to appear offline to specific people in Facebook chat for whatever reason, here's how to do it.

Craig Simms Special to CNET News
Craig was sucked into the endless vortex of tech at an early age, only to be spat back out babbling things like "phase-locked-loop crystal oscillators!". Mostly this receives a pat on the head from the listener, followed closely by a question about what laptop they should buy.
Craig Simms

Sometimes you just want a bit of extra privacy. If you want to appear offline to specific people in Facebook chat for whatever reason, here's how to do it.

Take note that this may change whenever Facebook decides it's time for a site update, which does happen rather frequently.

1. In the left-hand column of your profile, under "Lists", click "More".

(Screenshot by CBS Interactive)

2. Click "Create a list".

(Screenshot by CBS Interactive)

3. Call the list something easy to remember, like "Invisible", and click "Create list". You will be taken to the list page.

4. Click "Manage list" in the top right-hand corner, then "Add/remove friends". Select the people you want to hide from in the pop-up that appears, and when finished click "Done".

(Screenshot by CBS Interactive)

5. Open Facebook chat and click on the gear icon. Select "Limit availability".

(Screenshot by CBS Interactive)

6. In the pop-up that appears, set the drop-down menu to "Make me unavailable to". Select your "Invisible" list, and hit "OK".

(Screenshot by CBS Interactive)

7. Now everyone added to this group will not see your Facebook chat presence. You can also quickly add people by going to their profile, selecting the "Friends" button in the top right, then clicking on the "Invisible" list.