8 easy ways to make your TikTok account more private

No one wants their personal information or activities exposed to the whole world, especially on a huge platform like TikTok. Here are eight settings I tweaked to make my TikTok account more private.

1 Set your account to private

The first and easiest way to make your TikTok account more private is to set your TikTok account to private. This allows you to control who can follow you, view your TikToks, watch your live videos, and see your favorite content and list of followers and followers. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Go to Profile table
2. Tap on three line icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
3. Choose Settings and privacy.
4. Tap Privacy under Account.
5. Finally, turn on the switch next to it Private account under Discoverability.

Note that existing followers will not be affected by switching to a private account. They will still be able to see your current and future content. If you don’t want to communicate with someone who is already following you, you will have to remove them manually.

2 Hide your favorite videos

Whether you have a special sense of humor or simply prefer to keep your interests private, you can hide your favorite videos from broadcasting to your followers. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Go to Profile table
2. Tap on three line icon in the upper right corner of the screen and then select Settings and privacy.
3. Go to Privacyand select Popular videos under Interaction.
4. Now select Just you once Who can watch your favorite videos a menu will appear.

3 Turn off your activity status

An embarrassing situation you’ve probably experienced at least once is spending hours on TikTok after telling your friend you’re “going to bed.” I know I have more time than I’d like to admit! The next thing you know, they’re messaging you, calling you because TikTok notified them that you’re still online.

To avoid situations like this, you can disable your activity status on TikTok. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Go to Profile in the lower-right corner of the screen, then tap three-line icon in the upper right corner of your profile.
2. Now select Settings and privacyand then Privacy.
3. Finally, turn off the switch next to it Activity status under Discoverability.

Keep in mind that turning off the activity status has one downside – you won’t be able to see the activity status of others either. So you lose the ability to see if someone is currently on or when they were last active.

4 Limit who can send you direct messages

While I’m a big fan of sharing and receiving TikTok videos with friends via direct messages, the last thing I want is my device buzzing with message requests from strangers because I left a comment on a TikTok video.

Luckily, TikTok lets you control who can DM you, which is a great way to keep random requests at bay and enjoy your private time on TikTok. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Switch to Profile and tap on three line icon on your profile.
2. Then go to Settings & Privacy > Privacy.
3. Now tap Direct messages under Interaction.
4. Tap Allow direct messages fromand the following four options will appear: Each, Recommended friends, Friendsand No one. A choice in my opinion Friends is usually the way to go. If you want to stop receiving direct messages completely, select No one.

5 Disable reading status

I have a bad habit of opening TikTok videos sent to me by friends and family, watching them and saying to myself “I’ll reply later”. Before I know it, days have passed and I still haven’t responded. The worst part? My friends and family probably think I’m avoiding them because they see I opened their direct message.

If you’re anything like me, you can disable reading status by doing the following:

1. Tap Profile at the bottom and after three line icon.
2. Go to Settings & Privacy > Privacy > Direct Messages.
3. Turn off the switch next to it Reading status under Message preferences.

Now you can watch TikTok videos that your followers send you at your convenience without having to reply immediately or feel bad!

6 Hide your watchlist

Sometimes you might want to avoid unwanted questions about the various people you follow on TikTok. In such situations, you may want to keep your following list private. You can do this whether you have a public or private TikTok account.

To do so, follow these steps:

1. Tap Profile at the bottom and then three line icon in the upper right corner.
2. Now go to Settings & Privacy > Privacy.
3. Tap The following list under Interaction.
4. Finally, select Oonly you under Who can view your following list section.

7 Stop TikTok suggesting your account to others

If you have a public account, you may not want all your friends, family, and everyday contacts to find it. By default, TikTok suggests your account to contacts, Facebook friends, and people who open links from you or who send you links. Even if your account is set to private, it can still be suggested to others unless you adjust certain settings. Fortunately, TikTok allows you to control how your account is designed.

To make these changes, go to Profileand then tap the three lines icon in the upper right corner. Next, go to Settings & Privacy > Privacyand tap on Suggest your account to others under Discoverability. On the Suggest Your Account to Others page, you’ll see three radio buttons: Contacts, Facebook friendsand People who open or send you links. As our goal is to make our TikTok account more private, simply turn off all the switches.

8 Turn off profile view history

I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times when I’ve been investigating people I know in real life on TikTok. Many people don’t realize that TikTok tracks who views profiles, and this information can be visible to people if they have Profile View History turned on.

So while you may think you’re doing a great job hiding behind a screen, they’ll easily see that you’ve viewed their profile. If you don’t want others to know you’ve viewed their profile, follow these steps:

1. Switch to Profile at the bottom and tap on three line icon.
2. Go to Settings & Privacy > Privacy and then Profile view under Interaction.
3. Finally, turn off the switch next to it Profile view history.

While turning off your profile view history means you can no longer see who viewed your TikTok profile, it’s a good trade-off for your privacy.

Privacy is of the utmost importance to me when it comes to my social media, and luckily TikTok has a lot of settings that allow me to enjoy the platform without compromising my privacy.