How to Change Privacy Settings on TikTok

Controlling who sees and interacts with your TikToks is the first step to building a brand, growing a community, or simply sharing content on your own terms. This guide breaks down every important privacy setting inside the TikTok app, explaining what it does, who should use it, and how to change it step-by-step. We’ll cover everything from making your account private to fine-tuning who can comment, Duet, or even see your liked videos.

Why Your TikTok Privacy Settings Matter

Before we get into the how-to, let's quickly talk about the why. Your privacy settings are more than just a set of toggles, they're your control panel for managing your digital presence. For personal users, it’s about sharing moments with just friends and family. For creators and brands, it’s about shaping your community conversation and protecting your content. Getting these settings right helps you:

• Control Your Narrative: Decide who can use your content for Duets and Stitches, preventing your videos from being used in ways you didn't intend.
• Manage Your Community: Filter out spam or negativity by controlling who can comment or send you direct messages. This is vital for maintaining a positive brand environment.
• Protect Your Personal Information: Limit how much of your activity, like the videos you've liked or the people you follow, is visible to the public.
• Define Your Growth Strategy: An open, public profile is necessary for viral growth, but understanding how to use private settings for specific posts gives you flexibility.

Think of these settings not as restrictions, but as tools to build your TikTok presence exactly the way you want it.

How to Find Your Privacy Command Center

First things first, you need to know where to find all these options. TikTok keeps everything tucked away a few taps from your profile page. It only takes a few seconds to get there.

1. Open the TikTok app on your phone.
2. Tap the Profile icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
3. Tap the three horizontal lines (the "hamburger menu") in the top-right corner.
4. Select "Settings and privacy" from the menu that slides out.
5. From here, tap on the second option down: Privacy.

You're now in the Privacy menu. This is your command center for managing every aspect of your account's visibility and user interactions. Let's break down what each of these settings does.

The Private Account Toggle: Your Front Door Lock

At the very top of the Privacy screen, you'll see the "Private account" toggle. This is the simplest and most powerful privacy setting on TikTok. Think of it as the main lock on your front door.

What Does a Private Account Do?

When you enable the "Private account" toggle:

• New followers need your approval. Anyone who wants to follow you must send a request, which you can accept or deny.
• Only approved followers can see your content. This includes your videos, LIVEs, bio, following list, and liked videos feed.
• Your content can't go viral with strangers. People who don't follow you won't be able to see your videos on the For You page. They cannot Duet, Stitch, or download your content.

Who Should Use a Private Account?

A private account is perfect for people who only want to share their TikToks with a select group of friends and family. It’s for using TikTok as a personal video diary, not as a platform for growth.

Heads up for Creators and Brands: If your goal is to grow your audience, gain visibility, or build a brand, you should not use a private account. Keeping your account public is essential for your videos to appear on the For You page, reach new audiences, and engage in trends. A public account is your ticket to organic growth.

A Deep Dive into Your Public Profile Settings

For most creators and businesses, the goal isn’t to lock everything down but to carefully manage a public profile. This is where you fine-tune who can interact with your account and how. Let’s go through the key settings in the Privacy menu.

Suggest Your Account to Others

This setting helps people you might know in real life find you on TikTok. Toggling on these options allows TikTok to suggest your account to:

• Contacts: People in your phone’s address book.
• Facebook friends: People you're connected with on Facebook.
• People who open or send links to you: If someone sends you a TikTok link or you send one to them, TikTok may suggest your accounts to each other.

Advice: If you're trying to grow your brand, turn all of these on. It helps bootstrap your initial following by connecting with people you already know. If you prefer to keep your personal life and your TikTok profile separate, turn these off.

Comments

This section is all about managing the conversation on your videos. A lively comment section is great for engagement, but it can also be a source of spam or negativity. You have several layers of control here.

Who can comment on your videos:

• Everyone (if public account): Anyone on TikTok can leave a comment. Best for maximum engagement and brand growth.
• Friends (if private account is On) / Followers you follow back: Limits comments to mutuals, creating a smaller, more intimate conversation circle.
• No one: Completely disables comments on all your videos. This can hurt engagement and make your account feel impersonal, so use it sparingly.

Comment Filters:

This is your best tool for proactive community management. You can:

• Filter all comments: Every single comment is hidden until you manually approve it. This gives you total control but can be very time-consuming.
• Filter selected comment types: Automatically hide spam, offensive comments, or comments with specific keywords. This is the most practical option for most creators.
• Filter keywords: Add a custom list of words or phrases you want to be hidden from your comment section. If you’re a brand, you might add competitor names or common spam terms to this list.

Mentions and Tags

This setting controls who can tag you (@yourusername) in their videos or comments. Getting tagged is great for visibility and collaboration, but it can also be used for spam.

Who can mention or tag you:

• Everyone: Recommended for brands who want to encourage user-generated content and make it easy for followers to engage.
• People you follow: A good middle ground if you only want to be tagged by accounts you know and trust.
• Friends: Restricts tagging to mutual followers.
• No one: Prevents anyone from tagging your account.

Direct Messages (DMs)

Your inbox is a direct line to your audience, but it's important to control who can get in touch with you.

Who can send you direct messages:

• Everyone: Opens your DMs to anyone. This can be useful for business inquiries but also invites spam.
• Suggested friends (Contacts, Facebook friends, etc.): Limits your inbox to people you likely know.
• Followers you follow back (Friends): Only allows DMs from mutuals. This is a common choice for personal accounts.
• No one: Turns off your direct messages completely.

You can also control your Read status here, which lets others see when you've read their message. Turn it off if you prefer to read messages without the pressure of an immediate reply.

Duet and Stitch

Duets and Stitches are core to TikTok culture and a huge driver of viral trends. These settings let you control who can use your videos as a foundation for their own content.

Who can Duet/Stitch with your videos:

• Everyone: The best choice for growth. Allowing anyone to Duet or Stitch your content is like giving them a template to create their own viral videos, which drives visibility back to your original sound and video.
• Friends (Followers you follow back): Lets a trusted inner circle be creative with your content.
• No one: Protects your content from being re-contextualized by others. This can be useful for sensitive videos but will limit your reach.

Video Downloads

This is a simple on/off toggle that controls whether other users can save your videos to their devices. When people download your video, it includes a TikTok watermark with your username.

• On: Allows downloads. This helps your content spread off-platform to places like Instagram Reels or text message group chats, potentially bringing more viewers back to your profile.
• Off: Disallows downloads through the TikTok app. Be aware that savvy users can still find workarounds, so this isn't a foolproof method of protecting your content.

Following List, Liked Videos, and Favorite Sounds

These settings let you control the visibility of your personal activity on the platform. Many users don't realize these are often public by default.

• Following list: Who can see the list of accounts you follow? You can set this to Everyone or Only me. Setting it to "Only me" is a good step for general privacy.
• Liked videos: Who can see the feed of all the videos you've liked? Again, you can choose Everyone or Only me. We strongly recommend setting this to "Only me" to keep your browsing habits private.
• Favorite sounds: Who can see the list of sounds and songs you've saved? Similar to the others, you can select Everyone or Only me.

Managing Privacy on Individual Videos

What if you want your account to be public but have one specific video that you only want to share with friends? You don't have to change your entire account settings. TikTok gives you granular control over each video you post.

Before You Post a Video:

On the final screen before you hit the "Post" button, look for the option labeled "Who can watch this video." Tapping on it gives you three choices just for this specific upload:

• Public: Anyone can watch it.
• Friends: Only your mutual followers can see it.
• Only you: The video saves to your profile, but it’s essentially a private draft that no one else can see.

On this same screen, you can use the toggles to allow or disallow Comments, Duets, and Stitches for that one video, overriding your account-wide default settings.

After You've Posted a Video:

Changed your mind about an old video? You can adjust its privacy settings at any time.

1. Go to the video on your profile.
2. Tap the three dots (...) on the right side of the screen.
3. In the bottom row of options, swipe to the left and find "Privacy settings."
4. From here, you can change who can watch the video, switch comments on or off, and toggle permissions for Duet and Stitch.

This is incredibly useful for managing your content over time. You might change a video from Public to Friends after a trend fades or turn off comments on a video that starts attracting negativity.

Final Thoughts

Mastering your TikTok privacy settings gives you the power to curate your experience on the platform. Whether you're locking down a personal account or thoughtfully managing a public brand presence, these tools allow you to control the conversation and protect your content. Take a few minutes to go through your settings and make sure they align with your goals.

As creators and social media managers, we know that managing a consistent and secure presence across multiple platforms can feel like a lot. Keeping track of what’s scheduled where, engaging with comments, and analyzing performance takes time. That’s why we built Postbase, a tool designed to simplify that workflow with a visual content calendar and unified inbox. By getting your planning and engagement organized, you have more time to focus on creating great content and engaging with your community in a way that feels right for your brand.