If A TikTok User Is Private, Can You See Their Liked Videos?

People are naturally curious.
Social media platforms like TikTok establish safeguards to protect users’ privacy.

That often leads to conflicts.

Users may want to learn everything they can about an influencer or popular content creator. They might also want to discover exactly what their friends or family members have been doing on the app. TikTok has developed systems that let people keep much of that information secret, though.

When a user makes their account “private,” which is easy to do in the platform’s settings, much of their in-app behavior is hidden from general view. Random surfers can see many of the specific actions taken by public accounts, but only a private account’s followers (or in some cases, mutual followers) can view those details.

Making the situation even more confusing, users are also allowed to hide just some of their interactions with others on the app.

Where do TikTok likes fit into this puzzle? Read on.

What Happens When You Like a TikTok Video

The whole point of liking a TikTok post, of course, is to register your approval and give the content creator’s TikTok presence and visibility a boost. Creators appreciate every like they receive.

Something else occurs when you’ve hit the “like” button, too. The video’s thumbnail appears on the content grid located on your TikTok profile, allowing your profile page visitors to see which posts you’ve liked and to watch all of those videos.

Most people don’t see a problem with that. They feel that a grid showing the content they’ve liked seems relatively benign and isn’t worth worrying about.

Some, however, carefully guard their TikTok privacy. They may not want their employers or family to see the type of videos they like to watch in their spare time; they may not want people they don’t know to be able to learn anything about their content preferences; or they may simply feel more secure on the app when they’ve protected all the data they can.

Those folks have two options.

• They can make their entire account private, which severely limits their visibility on the platform. Only their approved TikTok followers can see their posts, see their profile, and message them.
• They can change a setting that makes their likes private. Even followers and moots (mutual followers, meaning each user follows the other) are prevented from seeing their grid of liked videos.

Here’s the bottom line.

Can You See Someone’s Private Liked Videos?

It depends. There are three possible scenarios.

• If someone’s made their likes private, you can’t see their “liked grid.” That’s true even if their account is public, or if their account is private and you follow them.
• If you follow someone whose account is private but they haven’t hidden their likes, all of the videos they’ve liked are visible to you.
• If an account is private but their likes aren’t, the user will have to approve you as a follower before you can see which videos they’ve liked.

How Do You Hide Your TikTok Likes?

If this discussion has made you think about making your “liked grid” private, it takes less than a minute to protect your likes from public view.

1. Visit your TikTok profile by tapping the “Profile” icon at the bottom right of your home screen.
2. Click the “Menu” icon (three horizontal lines) at the top right of the profile page.
3. Choose “Settings and profile” from the popup menu.
4. Click the “Privacy” link.
5. Scroll down and click on “Liked videos.”
6. You’ll have the option to leave the setting at “Everyone” (which keeps your likes public) or “Only you” (which hides your likes from everyone else).

TikTok has lots of settings that allow you to control your visibility on the app. Exploring them while you’re on the “Privacy” screen will help you tailor your TikTok presence to your privacy preferences more precisely.