diff --git a/cpp/CMakeLists.txt b/cpp/CMakeLists.txt
index b9f98a5d44..af8365c738 100644
--- a/cpp/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/cpp/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -120,8 +120,9 @@ target_include_directories(
 
 # Notice, we do not link to cuda or cufile since KvikIO opens them manually using `dlopen()`.
 target_link_libraries(
-  kvikio PUBLIC Threads::Threads BS::thread_pool ${CMAKE_DL_LIBS}
-                $<TARGET_NAME_IF_EXISTS:nvtx3::nvtx3-cpp> $<TARGET_NAME_IF_EXISTS:CURL::libcurl>
+  kvikio
+  PUBLIC Threads::Threads BS::thread_pool ${CMAKE_DL_LIBS} $<TARGET_NAME_IF_EXISTS:nvtx3::nvtx3-cpp>
+  PRIVATE $<TARGET_NAME_IF_EXISTS:CURL::libcurl>
 )
 
 target_compile_definitions(