Reddit has a new privacy feature that gives users more control over the content that appears on their user profiles. The update announced by Reddit on Tuesday now allows users to selectively hide posts and comments from subreddits they participate in instead of having all their activities exposed to anyone who clicks on their profiles.
That setting, which has helped drive Reddit’s reputation for being an open platform, will remain the default option, leaving all public posting and comment history visible on profiles unless the user decides to curate it. Many users often create “throwaway” accounts to avoid being identified, given how easily other people could expose sensitive information and embarrassing behavior within their post and comment history — with sometimes viral attention.
A handful of new customization options are rolling out and can be accessed under the “curate your profile” tab in the settings menu. These include “content and activities” settings that hide all public posts and comments, including those made directly on user profiles, or selectively hide posts and comments made in specific subreddit communities. There’s also a “NSFW” toggle that hides posts and comments in subreddits that are flagged as NSFW.
Users cannot select individual comments or posts to hide from their profiles. These settings also won’t hide comments or posts in the subreddits in which they were published.
The privacy settings include some carveouts for community moderators, who often need to review user profiles before taking action against accounts. Mods will have full access to a user’s profile for 28 days after they post, comment, send modmail, request to be an approved poster, or request to join a private subreddit. A user’s chosen visibility setting will be honored after 28 days, but that timer will be reset if they interact with the subreddit again.
Reddit is likely introducing these changes to encourage people to engage with the platform without using throwaway accounts — something that makes it harder to collect engagement and interest data for individual users, given its post-IPO focus on ads and AI training. Judging by the comments on Reddit’s FAQ thread, however, some people are apprehensive about the privacy features.
“This seems like it’s going to lead to bad actors being able to more easily hide their behavior from the average user,” one user commented. “Unless you’re a mod, you won’t be able to see that they’re posting inflammatory misinformation across a dozen different subs, for instance. Less transparency isn’t good.”
