Privacy settings
There are currently two levels of privacy settings.
- Profile type
Here you can choose only two modes: “Open” - all users will be able to visit your page and “Closed” - no one except friends will be able to visit your profile.
- Flexible privacy settings
With their help you can do incredible things. If you wish, you can adjust the options so that each of your friends will display your page differently. Flexible privacy settings allow you to hide only some personal elements and not make your entire account secret.
Using a combination of the tools described, you can easily protect your personal information from prying eyes. Full settings functionality is available both from a computer and from a phone.
There is a whole section dedicated to privacy options in your account settings. It contains 27 parameters that you can adjust to your liking.
The most uncompromising of them is “Profile Type”. With its help, you can completely block unfamiliar users from visiting your page in two clicks.
To hide your personal data from everyone, go to your account settings.
Go to the “Privacy” section and scroll to the bottom of the page. In the “Profile Type” column, set the mode to “Closed”.
In response to an attempt to make your profile private, you will receive a message stating that the restrictions will also apply to subscribers. Confirm your intentions with the click of a button.
All changes in the “Privacy” section are saved automatically, so you are already in VK in hidden mode. It's up to you to close the page forever or use this function as a temporary measure.
On my own behalf, I will say that social networks were originally created as a means of communication and bringing people together. They continue to pursue this goal today. So, by climbing into such a “shell”, you will protect yourself from making new acquaintances and communicating with interesting people.
From whom can I close the page?
The functionality of the social network will allow you to configure each section separately. It won’t be a problem to hide the list of classmates from work colleagues, and leave the wall open only for relatives. For each section, you can configure several types of permissions to see/comment/write:
- “Only me” - the setting allows you to completely hide a separate section from other people.
- "Some friends."
- "All users".
- “Everything except...” is used to hide some information from several individual users. In order to completely hide an account, it is more convenient to blacklist inconvenient people.
- "Only friends". Most often, users want to make a VK page (account) closed to all strangers except friends, so they choose this particular setting.
- "Some lists."
- "Friends and their friends."
How other users see your page
What does a closed page mean for other members of a social network? This means that your profile information is no longer visible to anyone except your friends. A subscriber, registered or unregistered person on a social network will not see detailed information about you, but some things will still be available to them.
Namely:
- main photo (can only be viewed in a reduced size);
- status, if any;
- marking “online” or time of last visit to VKontakte;
- number of friends, including mutual ones;
- number of entries and gifts;
- personal information, if filled in (date of birth, city of residence, education, etc.).
On VKontakte you can hide your friends so that they do not appear in the list. Read more about this in a separate article.
How can I prevent this information from being displayed? To do this, you will have to erase some data. Go to the “Basic” section on the personal data editing page. Select “Do not show date of birth.” On the “Contacts” tab, remove the city of your residence or replace it with a fictitious one.
Clean up the remaining partitions in a similar manner and don't forget to save the results at the end.
Now your once public page has gained powerful protection. It can only be accessed through your consent.
If you need to hide account information from only one member of a social network, then the fastest and most effective way is to add him to the blacklist. Go to the page of the person who needs to be added to the emergency situation. Click the ellipses button and select “Block” from the pop-up menu.
After making all the necessary settings, you can go to your page and view it from the perspective of a stranger. This is done using a special function available to everyone. It is located in the same section in which we chose the profile type.
At the very bottom there is a text asking you to check whether your privacy settings are correct. By clicking on the blue link, you will be taken to observer mode and see what your account looks like from the outside.
Previously, it was possible to view “through the eyes” of an unregistered person, an unfamiliar member of a social network, or any of your friends. Unfortunately, at the moment the only option left is to view as an unfamiliar user.
How to hide sections with music, videos and photos in the new design
In the new design, only audio recordings can be hidden from strangers at once, and photo albums (except for profile photos) and videos can only be removed manually. For audio recordings, you need to go to the page settings and the “Privacy” tab. There will be a separate column “Who can see the list of my audio recordings”, in which you must select the one you need from the proposed options.
For photo:
- go to the “My Photos” section;
- select the desired album;
- hover over it;
- in the buttons that appear, select the pen icon, i.e. editing mode;
- click on “who can see the album” and select the one you want;
- don't forget to save the settings.
The same applies to video recordings, but you will have to edit each video separately. You can hide “Videos of me” and “Photos of me” in your profile settings.
How to view a private profile
Viewing a closed profile, like a closed community on VKontakte, is only possible if its owner accepts your application. Otherwise, you won’t be able to see anything except a miniature avatar and the person’s full name.
Writing a personal message on VK if the page is closed will also not work until you become a friend.
I beg you, do not try your luck by using various services and programs that promise you to get to a closed page using your ID. You won’t get access to the profile you need, but you’ll easily run into problems.
You will not be able to see the latest updates and latest news from a closed account. But there is also good news. You can find an archived version of the web page on the Internet and view it in the form in which it was before it was closed.
Saved copy in search engines
If the user hid his account only recently, then there is a possibility that search engines still have a version of the open web page.
To check for a saved copy, you will need the full URL of your VK profile. Copy it and paste it into the search bar of your favorite search engine.
As a result, you will receive a list of found social network pages. To the right of each URL is a small triangle arrow. Click on it and open the saved copy of your account in the drop-down list.
If the account you need is not found, try your luck in other search engines. Didn't it work there too? Then the only hope is the web archive.
Internet Archive Wayback Machine
This is a service that pursues an impossible goal - to collect archived copies of all Internet web pages in its storage. This saves all changes made on the site.
This means that if a VKontakte user made his profile private, then somewhere in the archive an open version of the web page could be saved.
Go to the service website and copy the URL of the hidden page from VK into a special field.
If the requested web page is in the archive, the service will provide the opportunity to view all its versions. The navigation is made in the form of a calendar, so you can select any date and see all the entries that have ever been posted on the page. Using the web archive, I found posts that had been removed from the wall a long time ago.
Using WayBack Machine you can even view deleted social network accounts.
↑ From the VK mobile application
- You should open the application.
- Tap on the profile, which can be found in the lower right side of the screen.
- Click on the button made of three lines in the upper right corner.
- Click on the gear.
- Find section "Privacy
». - In the “ Other
” section, find the “
Private profile
” item. - Press the On key.
- Confirm actions by clicking "Yes
»
As you can see, there is nothing complicated about this, you just need to carefully review the information from the service.
