diff --git a/cpp/CMakeLists.txt b/cpp/CMakeLists.txt
index 6175dc53df..6a4b85d075 100644
--- a/cpp/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/cpp/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ include(cmake/thirdparty/get_thread_pool.cmake)
 file(GLOB SOURCES "src/*.cpp")
 add_library(kvikio ${SOURCES})
 # target_link_options(kvikio PUBLIC "-Wl,--exclude-libs,libcurl.a")
-target_link_options(kvikio PUBLIC "-Wl,--exclude-libs,ALL")
+target_link_options(kvikio PRIVATE "-Wl,--exclude-libs,ALL")
 add_library(kvikio::kvikio ALIAS kvikio)
 
 target_include_directories(