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Access to your YouTube video isn’t determined by how you made it, but by the privacy setting you chose when you uploaded it. By default, a video uploaded to YouTube video can be viewed publicly. This means that anyone can search for and find it by name, source or tag, then watch it online unfettered. To restrict a video’s potential audience, use one of two alternative YouTube privacy settings.
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1 Privacy Settings
Upon uploading a video to your YouTube channel, you’re prompted to enter information about it -- from its title, description, tags, category and privacy level. By default, the video’s privacy level is set to Public. To change it, click the Privacy Settings drop-down arrow and choose “Unlisted” or “Private,” then choose “Save.” Both settings shroud the video from public view and enable you to share it with a target audience.
2 Unlisted Setting
YouTube makes two things happen when you label your YouTube video as unlisted. First, it prevents the video from being found by other users, whether in their search results or your channel. Secondly -- as it does with all other videos -- it generates a video link. Copy the link and share it with the select people you have in mind; they don’t need a YouTube account of their own to watch it. You may emphasize and request secrecy from your limited audience, if you wish, but continued video privacy ultimately depends on their behavior. If one of them shares your video link on a blog post or email blast, then the restricted viewership you had hoped for will be compromised.
3 Private Setting
Configuring a video’s privacy setting to Private makes it available only to you and other YouTube account holders of your choosing. To everyone else, the video will be invisible. Before you can share a private video, you need to link your YouTube channel to a Google Plus account. Once linked, simply type the names of your select viewers in the field below Privacy Settings or choose a Google Plus circle with which to share your video. If you haven’t linked your YouTube account to a Google Plus account, then your sharing options are limited to removing names from a video you previously shared privately.
4 Terms of Use
Although the visibility and viewership of an unlisted or private video are restricted, they remain subject to YouTube’s terms of use and guidelines. This means that you can't use either privacy setting to share copyrighted, pornographic or violent videos with anyone. If your private or unlisted video is found to be in violation of the guidelines, YouTube may remove it from the site -- the same way it does offending public videos -- and count it as a strike against your account. You may also lose the ability to set a public video to unlisted or private.
About the Author
Since 1988, Diana Faustmann has been writing on technology, business and culture. Her articles have appeared in various print publications, corporate websites and authoritative online sites. Faustmann holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of the Philippines.
Many YouTube videos are meant for sharing, but not everyone wants other people to see the videos that they upload. There could be several reasons for this, whether you’ve created a video meant only for family and friends or you want to keep a business video private.
Fortunately, you have the option to upload a private video to YouTube so that no one else can see it. This is easy to do, with only a few steps that you need to take to get it done.
YouTube has three privacy levels for videos. These are public, unlisted, and private videos.
Public videos can be seen and searched by anyone.
Unlisted videos can be viewed by people who have the link but won’t come up in a YouTube search.
Private videos are completely private, with access given through email invite.
What sorts of videos might you want to keep private? There are several reasons you might set a YouTube video to private so no one else can see it.
It might be a resume video that you want to show employers, but not the general public, or perhaps a presentation video for work. You might have videos that you want to use internally within your company or that you want to share with content collaborators.
All these videos could be better kept private or don’t need to be shared with anyone else.
If you want to upload a private video to YouTube, here are the instructions that you will need to follow in 2022.
Step 1: Make Sure You’re Logged In
It may seem obvious, but check that you’re signed into the Gmail account that is connected to your YouTube channel first.
Step 2: Go to YouTube Studio
When on YouTube, click on the profile icon in the top right corner of your browser. From the list, select “YouTube Studio”.
Step 3: Click Upload Video
Click on the video upload button above the News section – it’s the one with the arrow pointing upward.
You can then choose a video file to upload, either by dragging and dropping it or choosing “select files”.
Step 4: Fill in Details
You will be asked to add some information about your video, including the title and description.
Step 5: Set to Private
In the “Visibility” section, you can choose “Private” to make your video visible only to those you allow access to.
Alternatively, you can make your video unlisted if you want it to be visible to anyone with the link, but not searchable. Once your video is uploaded, it will be whichever privacy level you have chosen.
Step 6: Share Your Private Video
Your private video can’t be viewed by random people, but it can be viewed by those you give permission to. Unless you want to keep your video to yourself, the next step is to share your video with the people who you want to see it.
On your YouTube channel, click “Content” to view your videos. Select the video that you want to share, then in the Visibility section under Private click on “Share Privately”. This will give you a box to enter the email address of the person you want to share your video with.
Input the email addresses of each person you want to invite to view the video. You can check the box “notify via email” if you want them to receive an email that tells them they have been granted access to your video.
When you have put all of the email addresses that you wish to into the list, click “Done”. The people you have given access to need to sign in to their Google accounts if they want to be able to view your video.
How to Change Privacy Settings on a YouTube Video
What if you set a video to be private on YouTube but later want to make it more visible? If you want to change the visibility settings, it’s simple to do.
Just go to the Content section of your channel to find the video that you want to change. In the Visibility section for the video, you can change it from Private to either Unlisted or Public, depending on who you want to be able to see the video.
Listing a video privately on YouTube is easy to do and can give you a number of advantages. Just follow the steps above and you can get your video listed privately so only you and those you give access to are able to view it.