diff --git a/scrapy/pipelines/images.py b/scrapy/pipelines/images.py
index a511887b6..964541d6a 100644
--- a/scrapy/pipelines/images.py
+++ b/scrapy/pipelines/images.py
@@ -88,6 +88,8 @@ class ImagesPipeline(FilesPipeline):
         s3store = cls.STORE_SCHEMES['s3']
         s3store.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID = settings['AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID']
         s3store.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = settings['AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY']
+        s3store.POLICY = settings['IMAGES_STORE_S3_ACL']
+
         store_uri = settings['IMAGES_STORE']
         return cls(store_uri, settings=settings)
 
diff --git a/scrapy/settings/default_settings.py b/scrapy/settings/default_settings.py
index b9d01e155..26165da1a 100644
--- a/scrapy/settings/default_settings.py
+++ b/scrapy/settings/default_settings.py
@@ -176,6 +176,8 @@ HTTPCACHE_GZIP = False
 
 HTTPPROXY_AUTH_ENCODING = 'latin-1'
 
+IMAGES_STORE_S3_ACL = 'private'
+
 ITEM_PROCESSOR = 'scrapy.pipelines.ItemPipelineManager'
 
 ITEM_PIPELINES = {}