YouTube has just introduced a new option that privacy enthusiasts should find appealing. Users can now upload videos and mark them as unlisted. What this means is that only people with the link to the video page will be able to view any video marked as such.
"Melinda teaches high school in the Bay Area and recently reached out to us with a problem," explains YouTube software engineer Jen Chen. "Her students just finished a video history project that she wanted to share with their parents and classmates. But she was concerned about posting the videos publicly because she didn’t want the whole world to find them (frankly, neither did her students). Melinda told us YouTube’s private sharing options — a 25-person cap that’s limited to other YouTube users — didn’t work for her. She needed a better option to privately share her students’ talent."
The unlisted videos option is designed to eliminate this problem.
Unlisted videos will not appear on any public YouTube pages, including search results and the browse page. They won’t even appear on your personal channel.
"It’s a private video, except you don’t need a YouTube account to watch it and there is no limit to the number of people who can view it," says Chen. "You’ll get a link when you upload the video and then it’s up to you to decide who to share it with. Unlisted is the perfect option for that class project, video from last summer’s family reunion or your secret Broadway audition tape."
To create an unlisted video, just sign into your YouTube account, go to your My Videos page, select the video you want to make an unlisted video, click edit, go to the privacy section, and you will find the option to mark it unlisted.
Keep in mind that people you share a link to an unlisted video with can still pass that link on to others, so if you don’t want them to, make sure and let them know. More info on the feature can be found here.
