Who Can See My Private Favorites?

[WildflowyrJewelry]

Recently I've had several Indonesian shops send me unsolicited messages after I've favorited one of the items in their shop. 

However, my favorite items are set to "private" so how can they see that I've favorited something from their shop?

Today after receiving a message shortly after favoriting an item from a particular shop, I asked the shop how they knew I favorited their item and she sent me a screen shot of it.

Is this normal??  Favorites set to private are not really private? (And YES, I am 110% sure my favorites are set to PRIVATE.)  

[beadedwire]

I can't see your favorites....its disturbing that others can.

[WildflowyrJewelry]

I agree.  I double checked and see that they are indeed set to "private" so I'm not sure what's going on.  I emailed "support" so we'll see what they have to say...

[TastefulArtisan]

deleted because I was wrong. : )

[TastefulArtisan]

I'm a bit confused here. Surely you have seen in your activity feed an item has been favorited. That's how they know.

Report/Spam it since contacting someone who favorited an items is against Etsy's TOU and they will get the message privileges muted.

And then they will come here to ask why lol

[TheVintagePineapple]

If someone has their fav's set to private, the seller does not get the activity feed notification like they do when a public account fav's something.    They'll only see that an item has been favorited when looking at the item's stats.

How those sellers were able to see that the OP fav'd is concerning though.

I agree, put those messages in spam.

[TastefulArtisan]

@TheVintagePineapple

Oh wow!! I had no idea. Thank you for letting me know.

...slinks off while feeling like a dolt.

[MaynardMillinery]

Yes, back in the old days you’d get a notification that someone anonymous had favourited your item, but it would say “a Secret Admirer has favouritedXXXX”, now, you don’t even get a notification.

[UppNorthEh]

there seems to be two levels of private.  with one you can see who faved an item but on their profile it says their faves are private but you can still see them.  others are completely private and an item fave doesn't show in your activity or when they fave your shop.  they show up as secret admirer and no info.  

[TBQSC]

For accounts set to PRIVATE…

Although the seller will get a notification that XXX (Etsy member) favorited XXX (item), rest assure nobody can see your faves on your profile, not even the seller.  It’s only a notification for the seller, nothing else.

[TBQSC]

@MaynardMillinery  I get notifications all the time from private accounts.  The notifications will say XXX (actual Etsy member name) favorited your item (item name), but when I click on that member’s name, no fave items or fave shops are shown on their profile.  So it is truly private and only a notification is shown.

[beadedwire]

Wow, when did that start...that sucks...I will just stop using favorites entirely.

[WildflowyrJewelry]

Not to be nitpicky (but I'm a Virgo so it can't be helped lol) but if you get that notification with that person's name, and the item they favorited, then it's not really private. imho

[DOKOcreations]

As @TheVintagePineapple mentioned, I often get favourites that only show up in my stats, but not in my newsfeed, and I understand that those are from people who keep their favourites private.

However, this morning on my iPhone I had three notifications of favourites that had happened overnight (while my phone was muted). All three had user names in the notification, but when I looked at my newsfeed in both the app and the browser, two of them had disappeared. Unfortunately I hadn’t been awake enough when I first saw the notifications to remember the user names, so I can’t check if their favourites were set to private. So maybe there is a glitch in the app that passes along the username in the notifications, but filters it out in the news feed?

[WildflowyrJewelry]

So, after some back and forth with Etsy Support, I have my answer. Per "Ricky" in Etsy Support:  "Since your favorites are private, only the seller who owns the listings can see that you favorite them,  not anyone else."  

And there you have it, Folks: Your favorites set to "private"  are not technically private.

Thanks everyone for your feedback, and help!

[Adorabilities]

I agree -- alerting the seller means that your favoriting is not private. Is that new?

[MosaicSmith]

Well, that's disturbing, thanks for the heads up!

[PillowDetails]

OK, this is strange.  I admit, I'm one of those people who check the faves of many of the people who fave my items - to see what similar items they also faved as a way of gaging the market for my items.  I have NEVER clicked on a name on my Dash and seen a private list of faves.  This must be new.

* My faves are set to private - can anyone test and ask me to fave one of their items, to see if it shows on your dash?  I don't want to be doing that without your permission.

[EightMileVintage]

You can hit me up, @PillowDetails 

[Somethinks2Design]

@PillowDetails I just faved one of your items. Can you see it on your dashboard? My fav list ist set to private, so you should not see my list. 

If you want you can fav one of mine, I will check if I see your list

[PillowDetails]

@EightMileVintage   Thank you - just did!

[PillowDetails]

@Somethinks2Design  not seeing any faves since 3 hours in my dash.  I just faved one of yours, too.

[EightMileVintage]

@PillowDetails  Nothing yet but I've noticed there is quite a time lag between someone favouriting  something and us getting the notification in our shop. I'll be back in a few minutes.

[EightMileVintage]

@PillowDetails  It's been half an hour and I don't see you in my activity feed.

[PillowDetails]

Ricky got some 'splainin' to do!