How to make your Google Calendar private

I still clearly recall the slight terror I experienced at my first job when I discovered that my coworkers could see my private Google Calendar appointments. I shared my fitness schedule with 60 of my closest coworkers, which I mistakenly believed was an act of organization.

Although personal Google Calendars are always private by default, having other people in your workspace can make privacy settings a little more difficult to manage.

In order to book your dog Zumba classes at 7 a.m. in peace, here's how to make your Google Calendar private under any circumstance.

How to make a Google Calendar private

On the left-hand menu of Google Calendar, hover over the calendar you want to make private, then click on the three dots next to the calendar name. From the dropdown menu that appears, select Settings and sharing.

Scroll down to the Access permissions for events section, and uncheck the Make available to public box if it's checked. This keeps your calendar private to only those you choose to share it with. 

To share or unshare with specific people, scroll down to Share with specific people or groups, and click Add people and groups. 

If you've shared your calendar with specific people, make sure their permissions are set to your desired level. For example, here, I'm setting my permissions to See all event details. 

How to make an individual Google Calendar event private

You can still keep certain events private, regardless of the visibility settings on your calendar. For instance, you may make your entire calendar public while keeping one event private, like dog Zumba.

Click on the event you want to make private to open its details, and then click on the pencil icon to edit it.

In the event editing screen, click the visibility dropdown menu next to the briefcase icon. You can choose from Default visibility (whatever your calendar is set to), Public, or Private visibility for that event.

Click Save to update the privacy settings.