You’ve uploaded your video to Vimeo, added the perfect title and description, selected just the right thumbnail — all in all, life is good. But there’s one more important thing to determine: which privacy setting do you choose? Vimeo offers you tons of privacy options to help fit your needs, because it is one of the most important things to our community. And since we want to make your Vimexperience as seamless as possible, here are some helpful tips for common use cases we see to help you navigate the particulars of privacy — so you can get millions of eyes on your videos, or just a few. The settings are your oyster.
First, if you want to control the privacy settings for all of your videos, go to Upload defaults in your profile settings. You have a few different options under Privacy to control where and to whom your videos will be available. But, we all know that there are always unique cases and scenarios where you might want to curate different options for your videos, depending on what you’re using them for. You can get more granular and control privacy for your individual videos by accessing the privacy settings of an individual video. Simply click into your video, then select the Privacy icon from the sidebar. Voila! Now you’re ready to select from the following:
Public videos
Got a video that you think the whole world should enjoy? Setting your video’s privacy to “Anyone” will allow all humans of earth (who have an internet connection) to access your beautiful creation. Your video can be accessed via direct link, and, added to Collections so you can easily group videos into sets or curate by theme. And, it will be surfaced in search results both on Vimeo and on third-party search engines. Hello, SEO! (And that goes for your Vimeo Live videos, too.)
Upload a public video to Vimeo→
How can you upload a video for private viewing online?
If you're looking to share a video on Vimeo while keeping it private, you're in luck! Vimeo offers a variety of easy options to upload your content and control who gets to see it. Whether you're currently uploading or have already completed the process, you can quickly modify the privacy settings to make sure that only your selected viewers can access your video.
Upload a private video to Vimeo →
Private videos
Perhaps you’re apart of a team working on a rough cut. Or maybe you rep a brand with a finished video ready to go, but you’re waiting for a big event to publish it. Or maybe you just want to save that milk-shooting-out-of-your-nose video for your own personal giggles, and not necessarily have it show up when your boss Googles your name. Applying the ‘Private’ setting is a great way to store and share private videos for you and your team's eyes only.
Upload a private video →
How can you ensure a secure video share?
To ensure a secure video sharing experience, choose platforms such as Vimeo that provide strong privacy features, including password protection to limit access and single sign-on (SSO) video storage. Adding expiration dates to shared links and restricting download options can further bolster video security. For extremely sensitive material, opt for services that offer end-to-end encryption. Always transmit access details through secure methods and remind recipients about the confidential nature of the video. Utilizing Vimeo's enhanced privacy settings enables you to effectively control who can view and engage with your content, leading to a more secure sharing process.
Password-protected videos
Password protecting your videos is one of the most secure ways to control who sees your video. This comes in handy for everyone from wedding videographers, marketers and production houses that professionally live stream, to filmmakers delivering clients a new cut. Share your Vimeo URL and your designated password, and your clients, crew, or whoever else you share it with can manually enter that password to gain viewing access again and again. Keep in mind though, that they are then able to share your link and password onto others if they choose (free will, amirite?)
Upload a password-protected video to Vimeo →
Unlisted videos
Unlisted videos will not appear in search results, but they can be accessed and shared by anyone who has the video's unique URL. These videos can also be embedded anywhere online. Viewers do not need a Vimeo account to watch an unlisted video.
Upload an unlisted video to Vimeo →
Hide from Vimeo
This is another option only available to Plus and above members. If you select this, your video can be embedded on external sites but cannot be viewed on vimeo.com. This is a great option if you want to embed your videos to a third party site or blog, and want to direct eyes to your site, rather than back to Vimeo (hey, we want you to succeed everywhere — not just on our site).
Pro and up members can also create video review pages, which are semi-private, unlisted video pages intended for sharing with clients, collaborators, or anyone else you want to share your video with. Basic members will need to upgrade to a Vimeo Plus or above membership to unlock all of the video privacy settings.
Live users, rejoice
Premium users, take heart. All of these privacy options listed are ready for customizing for live streams and archived videos, too! And to better cater to this real-time format, you can set your privacy preference as soon as you create your event (which can be days, months, or further out in advance). That way you can focus on your live event the day of, and not stress about secure sharing.
You can also go an extra step and use email capture in tandem with privacy settings to help boost your marketing efforts. For example, you could send an unlisted link to your live event and enable email capture. That way, only viewers who enter their email addresses can view your live stream, and once your live stream ends, you can easily sync the email addresses you collected with places like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and more to target your most loyal fans. Hurrah, privacy pre-prepared!
Now go forth! Take on the world! And share (or hide) your videos when you need to!
Learn more about Vimeo's privacy options →
As a creator, if you're looking to create better videos that are or aren't privacy restricted, you can utilize Vimeo’s tools for hosting videos, the text-based editor, timeline editing suite, graphics tools, and the image-to-video converter.
