6 Things You Need to Know So Your Private YouTube Videos Don't End Up On Google

YouTube is the most popular site on the Internet for uploading your personal and professional videos for the world to watch. With so many people browsing through endless amounts of videos and having access to whatever content you’ve uploaded, it’s important to know what privacy settings YouTube offers its users and how they can use them to protect their material.

Here are six things to keep in mind about YouTube’s privacy settings when you sign up for an account and upload videos to it. They’ll help you protect your identity and keep up a positive online profile. With more than 1 billion unique users and more than 6 billion hours of video watched each month on YouTube, there's no telling what to expect. It's best to protect yourself and adjust your privacy settings.

1. Keep Videos Private

It’s tempting to showcase your videos to the world, especially if you have something unique, odd, or funny that you think will attract peoples' attention. After all, YouTube is responsible for making random videos worldwide hits. As intriguing as this sounds, it’s best to keep a lot of your videos set to private so only a select group of people (up to 50) can view them. This is especially important if you’re a professional and need to uphold a reputation. 

If you want to set your videos to private, follow these easy steps:

Visit your Video Manager Find the video you’d like to set to private and click the Edit button In the “Privacy Settings” drop-down menu, select Private Click Save Changes

2. Set Videos to “Unlisted”

If you want to showcase your video to more than just a select 50 people, but don’t want the video listed to everyone in public, then you’ll want to set your videos to “unlisted.” What this means is that anyone with the direct web address can watch the video, but without this address the videos are impossible to find. They don’t show up on your YouTube channel, in search results, or anywhere else on the site.

If you want to set your videos to unlisted, follow these easy steps:

Visit your Video Manager Find the video you’d like to set to private and click the Edit button In the “Privacy Settings” drop-down menu, select Unlisted Click Save Changes

3. Adjust Account Privacy Settings

YouTube is an interactive website, and your videos aren’t the only thing you need to protect from the prying eyes of the public. Whether it’s liking videos, subscribing to them, or your contacts sending you messages and sharing your videos, it’s important to stay proactive in making sure you know who can track what you like and watch.

If you want to set your account privacy settings, follow these easy steps:

Click on your avatar and select YouTube Settings On the next screen, click on Privacy at the top left

On this screen you’re able to set up and check your account privacy settings. Under “Likes and Subscriptions,” you can check the box to make sure any videos you like and any channels you subscribe to stay private and confidential. Under “Search and Contacts,” you can control who can contact you, share your videos, and find you by email address.

4. Edit Account Profile

Whether someone is on their mobile device, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer, people have access to your personal information if you share too much or don’t protect it. When filling out details including your name, age, company, interests, and uploading a profile picture, remember to only divulge information that can’t be used against you. Also, make sure that your cable internet service is protected by passwords so spyware cannot gain this information.

Leave email addresses and phone numbers out of these sections to avoid spam. If you don’t want to show any information, simply leave the fields blank (YouTube doesn’t make it mandatory to offer information on your public profile).

5. Control Channel Activity

If you choose to keep your videos and content public, then you may attract people who don’t agree with what you’re posting and may spew insults and span your YouTube channel. It’s important to stay proactive in previewing and approving comments, video responses, and ratings if you want your channel clean and free from negativity. This prevents unsuitable comments from being published and deters posters from accessing your channel and doing it again.  

If you want to disable or preview and approve comments, follow these easy steps:

Visit your Video Manager Find the video you’d like to edit and click the Edit button Click Advanced Settings Adjust your preferences under the “Comments and Responses” tab Click Save Changes

If you selected to preview and approve comments, continue:

Under “Allow Comments and “Allow Video Responses” select Approved Click your Username in the top right corner Click Inbox Click Comments on the left side of the page

6. Check Your Account and Report Abuse

Last but not least, you want to check your account often and make sure you update your settings according to your preferences. Log out of your account and check your page as a public user to see what's being accessed and what’s not. Also, if you notice bad behavior and abuse, make sure you report it. YouTube is a community, and if there’s harassment, inappropriate remarks being made, or if someone is violating your privacy, site administrators need to know about it. Use this tool to do so.