If there’s one thing that TikTok’s really good at (alongside its quality content and affinity for quick and memorable trends), it’s privacy settings and giving users as much control as they want over their in-app experience.
The privacy settings on TikTok are designed to let users determine whether they want a private or public account, how they want their activity to be tracked, and more.
Here are some of the settings that you can control and change as a user – and how to do it.
An Introduction to TikTok’s Privacy Settings
To access TikTok’s Privacy Settings, head to your profile page and tap on the menu button in the top right hand corner, indicated by the three horizontal lines.
Select ‘Settings and Privacy’ then ‘Privacy’ from the menu that appears.
Once the Privacy menu is open, you will see a range of different things that you can control as a user and account holder.
Private Account Status
This controls who can see your posts. When the toggle is set to off, your account is Public, and any user can follow you and see your posts. If you set your account to Private, users who want to follow you must ask for approval before they can see your content or engage with you through the app.
Users under the age of 16 will automatically be set up with a private account – a setting that they cannot change until they are over 16.
Activity Status
This controls whether followers can see what you do and what you engage with on TikTok. It is only ever available to those users who you also follow, making you “friends” in the eyes of TikTok.
Account Suggestions and Friend Syncing
These different areas of the Privacy Settings relate to who you follow and who TikTok connects you with.
When you allow account suggestions and friend syncing, you give TikTok access to data from other social media apps and from your phone – making it easier to find the people who you know personally, on TikTok.
This is great if you’re setting up a personal account but may not be a good move if your account is niche, targeted to a certain audience, or targeted towards business use.
Location Services
This is the part of TikTok that tracks where you are, allowing you to tag locations in your posts and giving TikTok the information it needs to personalise your experience by location.
Interactions
The remaining menu items in the ‘Privacy Settings’ menu revolve around your in-app interactions and the way that other users can engage with you. Diving into these will give you insight into who can see the different actions you take on TikTok, who can comment on your posts, and who can send you messages.
Familiarising yourself with these different Privacy options and menus will give you even more control over how you use the app – and how safe you are both when posting and when interacting with other users.
We hope this helps to reassure you of TikTok’s commitment to its users!
