Who can see your albums depends on listing privacy (Shared / Hidden / Personal / Gallery), optional guest passwords, and optional Private Links. Your account password is only for signing in—never give it to guests. Full setup forms: Creating an album → Security, Creating a folder → Security, Home page → Password.
Overview
Think in layers:
- Account password — signs you in as owner.
- Shared / Hidden / Personal / Gallery — whether the album or folder is listed and who can open the username URL.
- Guest password — extra gate on Shared/Hidden (and Home) for people using the username path.
- Private Link — separate unlisted
/c/…address with no username; turn off to revoke. - Guest Upload — lets people add files; browsing still needs a view path (album URL or Private Link).
Shared, Hidden, Personal & Gallery
- Shared — Listed on your home/folder navigation. Anyone who can reach that listing can open it (optional guest password). Good for family sites and portfolios you want discoverable on your own pages.
- Hidden — Not listed on Home/folder navigation. Guests need the direct URL (and password if set). Similar idea to “unlisted”: the link is the main gate, not search listing on your site. Pair with a guest password or a Private Link when you need stronger control.
- Personal — Only you when logged in. Do not use Personal if you plan to share, invite, Guest Upload, or Private Links. Guests will not see Personal content.
- Gallery — Public-oriented; submission to the public gallery may apply. See album security for details.
Guest passwords & URL parameters
Guest passwords gate the username URL for Home, folders, and albums. Use a password different from your account password. Append
?pa=guestpassword so guests are not prompted again on the same browser session when passwords match across items. Details: Share Albums, same password tip.A Private Link can have its own optional password, separate from the album guest password. See Private Link vs guest password.
Private Links
Private Links use
imageevent.com/c/ plus a random token. They do not show your username and open only that album or folder listing. You can add a password, set an expiry, and turn a link off without changing Shared/Hidden. Photos for these links load from a private media host. Full article: Private Links. Email Album and Invite Friends can send a Private Link under Link in the email.Linked albums & what guests see
Linked albums mirror another album’s content; upload and many owner tools are hidden. Guests still follow the source album’s access rules. See what cannot be linked and Album bar.
Downloads, right-click & hotlinking
Global download setting, per-album right-click disable, and guest permissions interact. Premium hotlinking is a separate choice from “may download a zip in the UI.” See bulk download and viewer (enlarged Share menu for copy and download).
Search engines & meta tags
Meta tags can allow custom HTML, default author/title/description, or Disallow to discourage indexing. This is account-wide policy for how pages expose metadata to crawlers.