TikTok has become one of the most popular social media platforms, with over 1 billion monthly active users. On TikTok, your profile allows others to see your posts, follower count, and other information about you. By default, TikTok shows users a list of who has recently viewed their profile.
For some users, this level of visibility into profile views may feel like an invasion of privacy. You may not want certain people to know you’ve viewed their profile. Luckily, TikTok offers settings to limit profile view tracking.
Why You Might Want to Hide Your Viewing Activity
One of the main reasons you might want to hide your viewing activity on TikTok is for privacy. As Time reports, TikTok has faced scrutiny over its data privacy protections. Some users are concerned about TikTok collecting personal data or sharing information without consent. By default, TikTok allows others to see which profiles you’ve visited. If you want to browse profiles privately without anyone knowing, you’ll need to change your settings.
You may want to hide your viewing history for personal reasons. For example, you might not want a friend or coworker knowing you visited their profile. Or you could be researching something sensitive and want to maintain confidentiality. Disabling view history prevents others from tracking your interests and activity on the app. This gives you greater control over your privacy.
According to a Congressional report, U.S. lawmakers have raised national security concerns over TikTok’s data collection practices. While the risks are still debated, increased privacy measures offer users more protection and peace of mind.
TikTok’s Default Settings Allow Others to See Your Views
By default, TikTok has view history turned on for all users. This means that when you view someone’s profile or videos, they can see that you visited them in their “Profile Views” section under the “Likes & Views” tab on their profile page.
According to TikTok’s support article, the feature is enabled to “build connections” on the platform. So when you visit a profile, TikTok assumes you want that person to know you checked them out.
With view history on, the profiles and content you look at aren’t private. You have to actively change the settings if you want your viewing activity to remain hidden from others.
How to Turn Off View History
The easiest way to stop others from seeing that you viewed their profile is to turn off view history in your TikTok settings. Here are the steps to do this:
- Open the TikTok app and tap on your profile icon in the bottom right corner.
- Tap on the three dots in the top right corner to open the menu.
- Select “Settings and privacy.”
- Tap on “Privacy.”
- Toggle off “Allow others to see your viewing history.”
Once you turn this setting off, other users will no longer be notified when you view their profile. According to TikTok’s help article, “If the Profile view history setting is turned off, then other users will not be able to see if you visited their profile” (source).
It’s important to note that even with view history turned off, any comments, likes, follows, or shares you make on other profiles will still be visible to those users. Turning off view history only hides your profile views.
Using a Private Account
One of the easiest ways to prevent others from seeing your viewing history on TikTok is to use a private account. According to TikTok’s help page, “With a private account, only users you approve can follow you and view your videos.” (https://www.tiktok.com/signup/private-on) This means that when your account is set to private, your viewing activity and profile visits will be hidden from people who don’t follow you.
By disabling your view history to non-followers, making your account private prevents the people you view from seeing that you visited their profile or watched their videos. Your view history and likes will only be visible to your approved followers. So if you want to browse TikTok privately without others being notified, switching to a private account is the best option.
You can set your account to private in your app settings. Just go to your profile, tap the menu icon, select “Settings and privacy,” then under “Privacy,” toggle “Private account” on. This will immediately hide your viewing history and restrict your profile. Keep in mind you’ll have to manually approve each new follower request if your account is private.
Using TikTok Incognito Mode
TikTok’s incognito mode allows you to browse the app anonymously without your activity being tied to your account. When incognito mode is enabled, your likes, comments, shares and viewing history will not be visible to others and will not be saved to your account.
To enable incognito mode on the TikTok mobile app, tap the profile icon in the bottom right corner. Then tap the three horizontal lines icon in the top right corner to access the menu. Go to “Settings and privacy” and toggle on “Incognito mode.”
While in incognito mode, your profile photo, username and bio will not be visible to others. You can browse, view profiles and videos as normal without your activity being tracked. To turn off incognito mode, simply toggle it off in the settings.
According to TikTok’s help page, incognito mode makes it easier to “watch videos that you may not want others knowing you’ve seen,” or to check out TikTok without friends knowing.
Sources:
https://www.tiktok.com/discover/how-to-enable-incognito-mode-on-mobile?lang=en
https://www.gamerevolution.com/guides/713315-watch-tiktok-anonymously-2022-incognito-mode
Viewing Profiles in a Browser
One way to view a TikTok profile without the user being notified is to use a web browser on your computer or mobile device. When you view a profile on the TikTok website or in the TikTok mobile browser experience, it does not get added to that user’s view history.
This is because the view history feature only works within the TikTok app itself. It does not track views that happen on the TikTok website. So you can browse as many profiles as you want in your browser without anyone getting notified about it.
To view a profile in your browser:
- Go to TikTok.com and login if required.
- Search for the username of the profile you want to view.
- When you open their profile page, you will be able to see all of their videos, followers, bio info, etc. without them being notified of your viewing activity.
One caveat is that if you Follow or interact with the user’s content in any way, they will be able to see that. But strictly viewing their profile will not show up in their view history.
Using a Secondary Account
One way to view TikTok profiles more privately is to create a secondary account. This allows you to browse and view content without it being tied to your main profile. Here are some benefits of using a secondary account:
You can view other profiles anonymously. Your main account name won’t show up in their viewer list. This helps if you want to subtly check someone’s profile without them knowing.
It keeps your viewing activity separate. Your main profile’s interests won’t be impacted by any content you view from the secondary account.
You have more control over your digital footprint. Any likes, comments, or interactions on your secondary account won’t be associated with your real identity.
It’s easy to switch between accounts. You can securely access both from the same device by logging in and out of each one.
The only downside is you’ll need to log in and out to switch between accounts. But overall, a secondary account gives you more privacy over your viewing activity on TikTok.
Asking a Friend to View For You
One simple way to view someone’s profile without them being notified is to ask a friend to check it out for you. Since your friend’s account won’t be linked to you, the person whose profile they view will have no way of knowing you’re behind it.
To do this, just ask a friend you trust if they’d be willing to visit the profile you’re interested in. Make sure they either have their view history turned off or don’t care if the person knows they looked. When they’ve viewed the profile, you can ask your friend to give you the scoop on what they found.
This allows you to get information about the profile you want while keeping your own account anonymous. Just be careful who you share private viewing requests with, as you don’t want that information spread beyond your friend.
Other Privacy Settings to Check
In addition to changing your view history settings, there are some other privacy settings on TikTok that you may want to review:
You can control who can see your liked videos under “Privacy settings” > “Liked videos”. The options are Everyone, Friends, or Only Me. Setting this to Only Me means other users won’t be able to tell which videos you’ve liked.
Under “Privacy settings” > “Comments” you can select who is allowed to comment on your videos. The options are Everyone, Friends, or No One. Limiting comments to Friends or No One prevents random users from commenting.
You can prevent other users from being able to download your videos under “Privacy settings” > “Allow downloads”. Disabling downloading prevents people from saving copies of your videos.
And under “Privacy settings” > “Suggest your account to others”, you can disable your account from being suggested to new users during account setup. This prevents your account from being randomly recommended.
Reviewing these additional privacy settings helps protect your account and control what information is visible to others.