Pinterest may feel like a harmless visual bookmarking tool, but beneath the recipe pins and home decor inspiration lies a data collection engine that tracks your searches, clicks, saves, and browsing behavior across the web. In 2026, Pinterest uses this data to build detailed interest profiles for its advertising platform, and much of your activity is publicly visible by default. Whether you use Pinterest casually or rely on it for creative projects, this guide walks you through every privacy setting you should change to limit what Pinterest knows about you and who can see your activity.
Why Pinterest Privacy Matters More Than You Think
Pinterest is often overlooked in privacy conversations because it feels less personal than platforms like Facebook or Instagram. But consider what your Pinterest activity reveals about you: health conditions you are researching, financial goals, parenting decisions, home renovation plans, vacation destinations, and wedding preparations. These interest signals are extraordinarily valuable to advertisers and data brokers.
Key privacy risks on Pinterest include:
- Public profile visibility: By default, your profile, boards, and pins are visible to everyone on the internet and indexed by search engines like Google and Bing.
- Search engine indexing: Your Pinterest boards can appear in Google search results, making your interests discoverable by employers, landlords, data brokers, or anyone searching your name.
- Cross-site tracking: Pinterest tracks your activity on websites that use Pinterest widgets, tags, or the Save button, building a browsing profile that extends far beyond the Pinterest platform itself.
- Third-party data sharing: Pinterest shares data with advertising partners and analytics providers, and third-party apps connected to your account may have access to your profile and activity data.
Your Pins Reveal More Than You Realize
A public Pinterest profile can expose deeply personal information. Boards about medical symptoms, fertility treatments, financial planning, addiction recovery, or legal issues reveal sensitive aspects of your life to anyone who finds your profile. Treat your Pinterest boards with the same caution you would give any public social media account.
Step 1: Make Your Profile Private
Setting your profile to private is the single most impactful change you can make. A private profile prevents your boards, pins, and activity from being visible to other Pinterest users unless you approve them.
To make your profile private:
- Log into Pinterest and click your profile picture in the top right.
- Go to Settings.
- Select Privacy and Data from the left menu.
- Toggle Private Profile to on.
When your profile is set to private, your content will not appear in Pinterest search results or in other users' home feeds. Note that making your profile private will automatically enable search privacy as well, which prevents search engines from indexing your profile.
Step 2: Block Search Engine Indexing
Even if you prefer to keep a public Pinterest profile, you should still prevent search engines from indexing your boards and pins. This stops your Pinterest activity from appearing in Google, Bing, and Yahoo search results.
Go to Settings > Privacy and Data and look for the Search Privacy option. Toggle it on to add a tag to your profile pages that instructs search engines to exclude them from results.
Keep in mind that it can take several weeks for search engines to remove previously indexed pages. If your profile has been public for a long time, cached versions of your boards may continue to appear in search results temporarily after you enable this setting.
Step 3: Use Secret Boards for Sensitive Content
Secret boards are Pinterest's built-in privacy feature for individual boards. A secret board is visible only to you and anyone you explicitly invite as a collaborator. Pins on secret boards do not appear in search results, your profile, your followers' feeds, or anywhere else on Pinterest.
To make an existing board secret:
- Open the board you want to make private.
- Click the three-dot menu icon.
- Select Edit Board.
- Toggle Keep this board secret to on.
Use secret boards for any content you would not want visible on a public profile, including health research, financial planning, gift ideas, and personal projects. You can create an unlimited number of secret boards, and collaborators you invite can add pins and comments but cannot change the board's privacy settings.
Tip: Start With Secret, Go Public Later
When creating new boards, set them to secret by default. You can always make a board public later if you choose to, but it is much harder to retract content that has already been indexed by search engines and scraped by data brokers. Starting secret gives you full control over when and whether your content becomes visible.
Step 4: Limit Data Sharing and Personalization
Pinterest collects data about your activity to personalize your feed and serve targeted ads. You can reduce this data collection significantly through your privacy settings.
Navigate to Settings > Privacy and Data and review the following options:
- Personalization: Turn off options that allow Pinterest to use your off-site activity, search history, and demographic information to personalize content and ads. Look for toggles related to personalized ads, partner data usage, and inferred signals about you.
- Ad Personalization: Disable settings that let Pinterest use data from advertising partners to target you with ads. This includes activity tracking on sites and apps that use Pinterest advertising tools.
- Cookie Preferences: If you are in the EU or UK, you can adjust cookie preferences directly in your privacy settings. Disable all non-essential cookies to minimize tracking.
These settings reduce the data Pinterest uses for ad targeting. While they do not eliminate data collection entirely, they limit how your information is shared with third-party advertisers and partners.
Step 5: Audit and Remove Connected Apps
Third-party apps connected to your Pinterest account may have access to your profile information, boards, and activity. Over time, you may have granted access to scheduling tools, analytics platforms, or other services that you no longer use.
To review and revoke connected apps:
- Go to Settings > Security.
- Find the section for Apps with access or Connected apps.
- Review each app listed and revoke access for any you no longer use or recognize.
Every connected app is a potential data leak. Even if you trust the app developer, their security practices may not meet your standards, and inactive app connections serve no purpose except as a liability.
Step 6: Clean Up Your Profile Information
Your Pinterest profile may contain more personal information than necessary. Review and minimize what is displayed.
- Display name: Consider using a first name only or a nickname rather than your full legal name.
- Profile photo: Decide whether a recognizable photo is necessary. A generic image or illustration protects your visual identity.
- Bio and location: Remove your city, workplace, or other identifying details from your bio. This information helps data brokers link your Pinterest profile to your real identity.
- Website link: If your linked website displays your full name, home address, or other personal details, that link undermines your other privacy efforts.
Step 7: Enable Two-Factor Authentication
Securing your account prevents unauthorized access that could expose your private boards and personal data.
Go to Settings > Security > Two-Factor Authentication and enable it using an authenticator app like Google Authenticator or Authy. Avoid SMS-based two-factor authentication, as SIM-swapping attacks can bypass text message codes. Save your backup recovery codes in a password manager.
Also review Recent Sessions under security settings to check for any unrecognized login activity. If you see a device or location you do not recognize, revoke that session immediately and change your password.
Step 8: Be Intentional About What You Pin
Even with strong privacy settings, your behavior on Pinterest generates data. Every search query, every pin you save, every board you create, and every link you click contributes to your interest profile within Pinterest's system.
Practice mindful pinning:
- Use secret boards for any research you consider sensitive.
- Avoid using Pinterest's search for health, legal, or financial topics you would not want linked to your profile.
- Periodically review and delete old pins and boards that no longer reflect your interests or that contain sensitive information.
- Log out of Pinterest when browsing the web to prevent cross-site tracking through Pinterest widgets and buttons on other websites.
Pinterest Privacy Settings Are Only Part of the Solution
Locking down your Pinterest account controls what data flows out going forward. But personal information you have shared online over the years, through Pinterest and countless other platforms, has likely already been collected by data broker websites. These brokers compile your name, address, phone number, email, interests, and more into searchable profiles that anyone can purchase.
Services like PrivacyOn can help remove your personal information from data broker sites. PrivacyOn continuously monitors over 100 data brokers for your information and submits removal requests on your behalf, cleaning up the digital trail that your social media activity has left behind. Combining strong Pinterest privacy settings with ongoing data broker removal through PrivacyOn provides a much more complete approach to protecting your personal information.
Get Started Today
Begin with the three highest-impact changes: set your profile to private, enable two-factor authentication, and convert sensitive boards to secret. Then work through the remaining steps to reduce data sharing, clean up your profile, and remove connected apps you no longer use. Privacy on Pinterest, like any platform, requires periodic attention as settings and policies evolve. A quarterly review of your privacy settings takes only a few minutes and ensures your protections stay current.