Users can no longer hide from search on Facebook

Facebook is getting rid of a privacy feature that let users limit who can find them on the social network.

The change comes as Facebook is building out its search feature, which people often use to find others they know - or want to know - on the site.

The social network on Thursday said it is removing a setting that controls whether users could be found when people type their name into the website's search bar.

Facebook says only a single-digit percentage of the nearly 1.2 billion people on its network were using the setting.

The California-based company says users can instead protect their privacy by limiting the audience for each thing they post about themselves.