Can You Check Out A User’s TikTok Profile Anonymously?

TikTok, and all social media platforms for that matter, have to walk a fine line when it comes to privacy. They have strict rules when it comes to accounts used by minors, of course. Protecting children and teens from users with exploitative or other bad intentions is paramount. The issue gets trickier when it comes to TikTok accounts owned by adults.

Some TikTok users want their activities and history on the app kept as private as possible, but others have no problem letting others see what they watch and what they do on the platform. The app’s approach is based on flexibility; numerous TikTok settings let people set privacy levels that fit their needs and preferences.

For example, they can set their entire accounts to “private,” only letting approved followers see their TikTok videos and account information. They can keep specific videos private, limit other users’ ability to DM them or comment on their posts, and safeguard other types of account info.

But what about the visibility of TikTok profiles? Let’s find out.

Viewing User Profiles

Naturally, you can see and edit your own TikTok profile. If your account is set to “public” (the default setting), everyone on the app can see your profile as well. The profiles for “private” accounts are hidden from most users; they can only be seen by users who the account owner has accepted as followers.

That leaves us with two questions:

1. Can you see who’s viewed your profile?
2. Can you view someone else’s profile without them knowing you’ve looked at it?

The answer to both questions involves a hard-to-find account setting: Profile View History.

Controlling the Ability to View Profiles Secretly

Before we start: in some TikTok versions, “Profile view history” and“Post view history” are two separate settings. In others, they’re combined into “Viewer history.” The settings have similar functions; one controls the ability to see previous profile viewers, the other controls the ability to see who’s watched a video. Readers with the combined setting can’t separate the two functions.

The default settings for Profile view history and Viewer history are “off.” That stops anyone from seeing that you’ve looked at their TikTok profile — but it prevents you from seeing a list of people who’ve looked at your profile, too. If you keep the setting “off,” you can look at as many profiles as you’d like without the users knowing, but you won’t know who’s looked at yours.

However, your anonymity may be at risk once you turn Profile view history or Viewer history on. If you check out a profile whose owner also has the setting “on,” they’ll see that you’ve visited their profile. If their history settings are “off,” though, they won’t be able to see that you’ve been there.

There’s no way to know whether someone has the privacy setting on or off, and that’s not ideal for people who want to be certain that they stay anonymous. It also doesn’t work for those who want to visit a profile without detection and still be able to see who’s looked at their profile.

Here’s the alternative. As long as you know the username you’re interested in, you can sign out of TikTok and search for the user’s profile with a web search engine. Profiles are visible even to those without TikTok accounts, so you can view the profile you’re interested in without leaving a trace.

Profile history settings only track visitors going back 30 days, so after a month, there’s no way for anyone to know that you’ve looked at a profile.

Changing Your Profile History Setting

It takes just a few clicks to turn your Profile View History or Viewer History setting on or off.

1. Open your TikTok profile by tapping the “Profile” icon at the bottom right of your home screen.
2. Open the profile menu by clicking the Menu icon (three horizontal lines at the top right of the screen).
3. A pop-up will open; choose “Settings and Privacy.”
4. On the next screen, choose “Privacy.”
5. Look on the list for either “Profile view history” or “Viewer history,” and toggle the switch on or off as desired.

That’s all there is to it. Just remember that if your app version only lets you change the Viewer History setting, it will affect the visibility of both profile viewers and video viewers.