Overview
Canny offers three options for board privacy: Public, Private, and Custom. This article walks you through the various options.
Benefits
Streamlined feedback management: Choose the ideal visibility level for your feedback boards to effectively engage with your target audience
Enhanced security: Protect sensitive feedback and maintain privacy with flexible access settings that match your needs
Customizable engagement: Scale your feedback collection from public communities to specific stakeholder groups with versatile board options
Board privacy options
Public boards are visible to anyone with the URL of your board.
Typical use cases include:
Gathering feedback from the public
Creating a community around your product where users can interact
Keeping prospective clients updated on upcoming features
Details on public boards:
Available on all Canny plans
You have the option to allow boards to appear in search results on engines like Google
Canny does not allow for fully anonymous feedback. A person must be identified in some way before they can create posts, vote, or comment. This can be done automatically via Canny Identify or users can create a free Canny account before giving feedback
Private boards are only visible to admins.
Typical use cases include:
Collect insights from employees/teams within your organization
Capture feedback on behalf of users without granting them direct access
Securely review feedback gathered by Autopilot from external sources
Details on private boards:
Available on all Canny plans
All boards are private by default
Private boards are only visible to other Canny admins (i.e. the people listed on the Admins page in your Canny settings)
Custom access boards are restricted to a specific selection of people.
Typical use cases include:
Limiting feedback so it only comes from verified customers and end-users
Allowing specific stakeholders to weigh in on projects (and keeping them up-to-date on progress)
Enabling individualized feedback from a specific subset of users
Details on custom access boards:
Available on the Growth and Business plans only
Custom access boards allow you to restrict access to specific people
You have a range of options to choose from:
Users/Customers
Only people who are signed in and identified as users/customers of your product via the Canny Identify SDK or single sign‑on (SSO) can access the board to leave feedback. An unidentified person who tries to access the board will be prompted to log in. You will not be able to access the board until they are identified.
You can set up an SSO redirect to send users back to your website to log in. They will be redirected to Canny afterward.
Segment
This is based on user segmentation. It allows you to restrict a board to a specific cohort of people based on attributes you have selected. Learn more
Teammates
Restrict access to a board to people with a corporate email address. For example, if Amira from Appy wants access to the board, she would need to verify her work email: "amira**@appy.com**". ****Teammates can be verified via Google G-Suite, Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, other SSO integrations, or through email verification.
Specific people
This is the most controlled option. This allows you to invite specific individuals rather than all individuals who meet specific criteria. Just enter the email addresses of the people you want to whitelist for access to this board. You will need to accept the email invite to gain access to the board. This option is great for boards dedicated to specific clients and beta testing.
Things to note:
Each board has its own privacy settings
Newly-created boards are private by default. This can be altered when creating a new board during the creation process using the dropdown:
Canny admins (everyone listed on the Admins page in your Canny settings) will have access to view all boards and feedback, regardless of admin role. There is no option to restrict an admin from seeing a specific board within the same Canny workspace.
Custom access boards are only available on the Growth and Business plans. Public and private boards are both available on all plans