The short answer is no, private videos on TikTok cannot be seen by other users unless the video creator specifically allows it. TikTok has privacy settings that allow users to control who can view their content. Videos uploaded to TikTok can be set as either public, private, or friends only. Private videos are only visible to the person who uploaded them.
What Does Private Mean on TikTok?
Setting a video to private on TikTok means that no one else besides you can view it. Private videos will not show up on your profile or in any feeds for other users to see. They are solely for your own personal viewing through your own account. This gives TikTok creators the ability to save drafts, test out new content, or just keep videos for themselves without sharing them publicly.
How to Make a Video Private on TikTok
When uploading a new video on TikTok, you can select who can view it. Simply tap on the “Who can view this video?” option after recording and editing your video. This will give you a menu with three choices:
- Public: Anyone on TikTok can view it
- Private: Just you
- Friends: Only people you approve as friends on TikTok
Select “Private” and the video will be restricted from other’s views. You can also change a video’s privacy setting at any time on the editing page. Tap the three dots next to a video and select privacy to toggle between private, friends, and public.
Private Video Icon
Private videos are indicated with a lock icon rather than a globe icon. If you see a lock next to a video on your own TikTok account, it means that video is currently set to private. Other users will not see any indication that you have private videos uploaded.
Can TikTok Employees See Private Videos?
While other TikTok users cannot watch your private videos, employees and moderators at TikTok potentially could view them. This would likely only occur if a private video was reported for violating TikTok’s community guidelines. Part of monitoring for offensive, dangerous, or inappropriate content involves having staff review flagged videos. To enforce their policies, TikTok must have the ability to access private material. Outside of violations being reported though, TikTok employees generally do not view users’ private content.
Private Message Videos
In addition to uploading videos that only you can see, TikTok also allows users to privately send videos through direct messaging. You can record a quick video selfie and send it directly to a friend on the app. These private message videos cannot be seen by anyone else, and disappear after being viewed once by the recipient. It provides a more personal way to share funny or spontaneous videos one-on-one or with close friends.
Comments on Private Videos
Private videos do not allow comments as no one else can view the video to leave them. You also cannot see view counts or likes on private videos. The only engagement will come from your own account. If you want to enable comments or see how videos perform with others, you’ll need to change the privacy setting to “Friends” or “Public”.
Duets on Private Videos
Since other TikTok users can’t see your private videos, they also cannot duet them. The duet feature allows other people to record a video side-by-side with yours. This can only be done with videos that are visible to others. To use TikTok’s duet feature, the original video must be public or friends-only. Private videos cannot be part of a duet.
Saving and Sharing Private Videos
Even though you are the only person who can watch your private videos on TikTok, there are couple ways they could be shared:
- You can save private videos to your camera roll and then share them through other apps.
- You can screen record private videos and share the screen recording.
- If your account is hacked, private videos could be posted publicly by the hacker.
While someone who took these steps could leak your private videos, in general other users have no way to access them directly within the TikTok app itself.
Converting Private Videos to Public
At any time, you can change a private video to public or friends-only if you want to share it. TikTok allows flexibility to modify privacy settings even after a video is uploaded. Simply access the video’s editing page, tap on privacy settings, and update as desired. The video visibility will update right away based on your new choice.
Private Fyp feed
In addition to private videos, TikTok has also begun testing a new “Private FYP” feed. This setting allows users under 16 to have a personalized FYP page that is private and only viewable by themselves. It prevents others from being able to see the videos, trends, and creators the younger users are engaging with. This added level of privacy and safety is restricted to under 16 accounts for now, but could expand in the future.
Deleted Private Videos
If you delete a private video from TikTok, there is no way for someone else to retrieve it. The video is permanently removed from TikTok’s servers and erased. However, nothing prevented you from saving a private video to your camera roll before deleting it. So while the video will be gone from TikTok itself, any copies saved externally would still exist.
Private Video Data
Even though no one can watch your private videos on TikTok, data about them such as metadata, timestamps, etc. could still be stored by TikTok. This information would be used internally for analytics and your own viewing habits. TikTok’s privacy policy allows them to collect certain data on all videos uploaded to their platform, including private ones. But this data would not include the actual video content.
Privacy Concerns
While TikTok does provide the ability to upload private videos, concerns around data privacy remain. TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, leading to questions about government surveillance and access to data. U.S. authorities have expressed worries about TikTok’s handling of user data including private videos. But as of now, TikTok maintains that all U.S. user data is stored on servers in the U.S. with strict access controls in place. For most personal use, private videos are considered reasonably protected by TikTok against other users accessing them directly in the app.
Conclusion
TikTok allows users to set videos as private so that no one else can view them on the platform. Private videos are restricted to your personal account only. Other TikTok users have no way to watch, share, comment on, or duet private videos that you choose not to share publicly on your profile. The ability to privatize content is an important feature that lets creators develop ideas safely away from public view. While TikTok employees may be able to access private videos internally, the videos are well-protected from the general public through TikTok’s privacy controls.
