Being able to share your favorite images on Pinterest with the entire Internet is a perk—until it isn’t. What if you’d rather keep your pinboards private for a group, a friend, or just you?
Private boards are a Pinterest feature that CEO Ben Silbermann has been hinting at since his blog post on March 23. Two months later, private boards have yet to materialize, even as rumors of their imminent launch abound.
Tired of waiting? Here are four Pinterest alternatives that will allow you to set boards to “private” right now, plus our privacy rating on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being “airtight” and one being “might as well trust it to Facebook.”
1) Juxtapost
This visual bookmarking service boasts a dynamic private boards feature. You can make all, some, or one of your pinboards… er, postboards, private to a group of friends or just yourself. This service even lets you take your boards offline entirely: You can print an Excel spreadsheet of your posts to simulate the paper-and-pen style of organizing our ancestors enjoyed.
Privacy rating: 8
2) Springpad
Call it the Path of Pinterest alternatives—everything you add to this service is already private by default. From there, you can pick which pinboards… er, notebooks, to make public to friends, Facebook and Twitter feeds, or everyone. Too complicated? Just share the link to your notebook with the desired party. It’ll become a public link.
Privacy rating: 9
3) MikeLike
Private boards are the one notable feature that separates this site from other generic Pinterest clones. Use the MikeLikeIt button to repin something from Pinterest or anywhere online to your private MikeLike board. Of course, since the button lets you pin to MikeLike, Pinterest, and even Tumblr, it’s up to you to remember to click the “private board” radio button. Otherwise, it’s going public on whichever board you last pinned.
Privacy Rating: 2
4) Clipboard
On its poetry-inspired About page, this service reminds users of their “right to privacy” online. Clipboard CEO and founder Gary Flake isn’t kidding. In an interview with LLSocial’s Josh Davis, Flake said the service is airtight enough for users to trust with their most personal images.
“Someone might have a bank statement or might have medical records there, we absolutely do treat that as really sacred,” Flake said.
Privacy rating: 10
Photo by Carl Clasio
