Privacy Settings let you control who can see your content, regardless of the Safety Level.
Read more about Safety Levels and how to set them here: Set the Safety Levels of Your Flickr Content or Account.
Privacy controls available
Non-Public
- Private: Only you can see the content.
- Friends: Contacts you’ve marked as friends can see the content.*
- Family: Contacts you’ve marked as family can see the content.*
- Friends and Family: Contacts you’ve marked as either friends or family can see the content.*
*Friends, Family, and F&F: These settings require members to sign into their Flickr accounts before they can see photos you’ve shared with them.
Public
- Public: All Flickr visitors can see the content, including those who do not have a Flickr account.
Note: Content with the Safety Level set to Moderate or Restricted content would only be visible to Flickr members who modify their SafeSearch preferences to see that level of content. Visitors not logged into a Flickr account would only see the content if it has the Safety Level set to Safe.
Why might someone be able to see my photo even though the privacy setting is set to non-public?
- If you add a non-public photo to a Flickr group, then the photo will be visible to all group members.
- If you tag a person in a non-public photo, then the photo will be visible to the person tagged.
- If you create a guest pass to the photo/ album that the photo is a part of.
To change privacy settings for existing content
These steps are for using Flickr on a web browser. For information on using Flickr on a mobile device, please find more information here: Change Privacy Settings in the Flickr app.
Changing to a stricter Privacy Setting will permanently alter the links to your content & remove faves from contacts that are not marked as that Privacy Setting -- this cannot be undone.
From a single photo page on the web:
- Scroll down to the Additional info section on the right side of the page.
- Next to Viewing privacy select the privacy level you would like the photo to have.
Change privacy levels in bulk:
- Hover over You | select Organize.
- Drag and drop content to the batch area.
- Select Permissions | select Who can see, comment, tag?
- Select your preferred settings.
- Select Change Permissions.
Set the default privacy for new content
- Head to your account settings.
- Select Privacy & Permissions.
- Under Defaults for new uploads you will see several settings.
- Update the relevant settings by selecting Edit.
- Once applied, select Save.
To locate content on your account based on the Privacy Setting, please see How to locate non-public and/or moderate or restricted content on your Flickr account.