Guide · Privacy

How to keep personal calendar details private from coworkers

Updated November 7, 2026

Short answer

Marking an event Private hides its details from coworkers, but not from everyone: people with permission to edit your calendar, and Google Workspace administrators, can still read private events. The only way to be sure is to keep the details off your work calendar entirely and put a plain "Busy" block there instead.

Who can see what on a work Google Calendar

Who	Normal event	Private event
Coworkers with free/busy access	"Busy"	"Busy"
Coworkers who can see event details	Everything	"Busy"
People who can make changes (delegates, assistants)	Everything	Everything, unless they were given the newer "see private events as free/busy" level
Workspace super admins and calendar admins	Everything	Everything

Based on Google's Workspace calendar sharing documentation. Your company's settings decide which row your coworkers are in.

Three ways to keep personal details private

1. Mark personal events Private

Open the event and set visibility to Private. Coworkers who browse your calendar then see "Busy". Delegates and admins can still open it.

2. Use a neutral title

Call it "Busy" or "Appointment" instead of "Therapy" or "Interview at another company". Combined with Private, nothing sensitive is left on the event, so it doesn't matter who can open it.

3. Keep personal events on your personal calendar and mirror only the time

Your personal calendar stays where it is, and your work calendar gets a private busy block for each event. This is what SyncBusy does. What it writes to your work calendar:

The start and end time.
A title: "Busy (via SyncBusy)" by default, or just "Busy". Pro adds an option to use the real event title, which is handy but puts that title on your work calendar, so skip it if admins or delegates seeing it would matter.
A fixed note saying SyncBusy created it.
Private visibility.

It never copies the description, location, guests or video links. On the default name, the busy block says nothing about the appointment, even to someone who can open private events.

Questions

Can my employer see my personal calendar through SyncBusy?

No. You connect your personal calendar with your own sign-in, and your employer never gets access to it. The only things on the work side are the busy blocks SyncBusy creates.

Does SyncBusy store my event titles?

No. It reads titles in order to sync, but stores only a one-way fingerprint used to notice changes. OAuth tokens and iCloud app-specific passwords are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM. The privacy policy has the details.

Do coworkers see "(via SyncBusy)"?

No. Because busy blocks are Private, coworkers see "Busy". The label is only visible to you, and to anyone who can open private events on your calendar.

Is "Out of office" a better way to block time?

Not for appointments. Out of office in Google Calendar declines meetings automatically and is meant for longer absences. A busy block just stops people booking over you.

Try SyncBusy

Free to start, no card needed. Connect your personal Google or iCloud calendar and your work Google Calendar, and your busy time shows up within minutes.

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