Pinterest Privacy Checker

Quick answer: to make a Pinterest board private, open the board, click the ⋯ icon, choose Edit info and settings (on Android: Edit board and header image), toggle Make this board private and click Done. For a new board, toggle Keep this board private when you name it. Pinterest's help now calls these private boards; they used to be secret boards, and its page's address still says so. The checker above shows who can see a board and your profile with your own settings, and Pinterest's steps for your device.

Who can see a private board

Pinterest's help (Private boards) is short and clear: Only you (and anyone you invite) can see your private boards. Saving to one is quiet too: When you save Pins to a private board, the person you saved from will not get a notification and the Pin’s count will not increase. And the other way round: When you save Pins from a private board, we will not show the name of the person you saved it from on your new Pin.

A business account should know one more line: Private boards and Pins can not be promoted through Pinterest ads. To make a private board public, toggle off Make this board private in the board settings.

How to make your whole Pinterest account private

A private board hides one board. To hide all of them, and your profile, turn on Private profile under Settings › Profile visibility (Make your profile private or public). Private profiles won't appear in search results on Pinterest or in search engines, but you can invite people you know to follow you. Two things decide whether you can:

• Business accounts: If you have a business account, you'll need to change it to a personal account in order to make your profile private.
• Teens: Profiles for teens from 13-16 years old are private by default and cannot be made public. You must be 16 or over to edit your profile visibility. Pinterest's teen safety page (Teen safety options) puts it differently: If you're over 16, you can choose to make your profile public in your settings.

How to keep your Pinterest out of Google

Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo may show your profile or boards in their search results. A public profile can stay public on Pinterest and still ask search engines to leave it out: that is Search privacy, under Settings › Profile visibility (Update your search privacy). You must be at least 18 years old to edit your search privacy. If your profile is private, search privacy will be turned on automatically and you won't be able to edit it. When you turn on search privacy, a tag is added to your pages to let search engines know to exclude your profile and boards from search results. We add the tag right away, but you may already have information that's added to search results.

Group boards and collaborators

Everyone you invite to a board can see it, private or not (Create and manage group boards). The circle can grow on its own: a board's owner chooses what collaborators can do, and one of the options reads Invite other people if you want collaborators to be able to invite others to your group board. To shrink it, remove collaborators from the board; the checker above shows Pinterest's steps.

FAQ