LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform, with over 740 million members worldwide. On LinkedIn, viewing other members’ profiles is a key way to learn about their background, skills, and experience. However, a common question is whether you can view someone’s LinkedIn profile anonymously, without them being notified or your name appearing in their list of profile viewers.
The short answer is no, it is not possible to hide the fact that you viewed someone’s LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn explicitly notifies profile owners when someone views their profile, and your name will appear in the list of “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” on their account. There are no settings to disable profile view notifications within LinkedIn.
However, there are a few nuances around LinkedIn profile viewing that are worth covering in more detail. While you cannot hide the fact that you viewed someone’s profile, there are some steps you can take to reduce the chance that the profile owner connects your name with your profile view. Additionally, some third-party browser extensions claim to enable anonymous LinkedIn profile viewing, though with limitations.
LinkedIn Profile View Notifications
When someone views your LinkedIn profile, you will receive a notification indicating that your profile was viewed. This notification will include the name and headline of the person who viewed your profile.
As the profile viewer, your name will also be added to the “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” section on that member’s account. This section shows the last 90 days of profile viewers.
There is no way to opt-out of sending or receiving LinkedIn profile view notifications. The notifications are automatically enabled for all members.
Some key things to know about LinkedIn profile viewing:
– Notifications are sent in real-time – As soon as someone views your profile, LinkedIn will notify you.
– Anonymous viewing is not possible – Your name and headline will always be displayed to the profile owner as part of the viewing notification.
– You cannot selectively hide view notifications – LinkedIn does not allow profile viewers to block notifications to specific individuals. The notification capability cannot be disabled.
– Viewers appear in “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” – The profile viewer’s name will be added to this section, visible to the account holder.
– Contact information is not shared – Only your name and headline are shared as part of the notification. Your contact details are not viewable to the account holder.
Limiting Profile View Notifications
While completely anonymous LinkedIn profile viewing is not possible, there are some steps you can take to reduce the chance that the account holder connects your name with your profile view:
– **Use an alternate account** – Maintain a separate LinkedIn account primarily for viewing profiles anonymously. Ensure this account has limited profile information and connections.
– **Customize your headline** – Change your headline periodically or set it to something vague (ex. “LinkedIn Member”) to make it harder to identify you.
– **View profiles infrequently** – Space out your profile views over time, rather than viewing someone’s profile multiple times consecutively.
– **Use LinkedIn anonymously** – View profiles either logged out of your LinkedIn account or in an anonymous browsing session. The account holder will still see a notification but without a name.
– **Leverage company pages** – Company pages show employees who have viewed the company page, not individuals. This can obscure the fact that you viewed someone’s profile specifically.
– **Connect with the account holder** – If you do want the account holder to know you viewed their profile, connect with them on LinkedIn. This provides context for your profile view.
Third-Party LinkedIn Viewer Tools
Some third-party browser extensions and tools claim to allow anonymous LinkedIn profile viewing, either by hiding your account details or obscuring your profile views completely. Examples include Anonymous Viewer, ViewOnLink, and Hide My Profile View.
However, limitations apply when using these tools:
– LinkedIn actively works to block these extensions and hide anonymity. Maintaining anonymity often requires using specific browser configurations.
– Viewing profiles while logged into your account will always notify the account holder, regardless of extensions used. True anonymity requires viewing profiles logged out.
– Storing LinkedIn cookies can reveal your account identity across anonymous sessions. Clearing cookies before each session is required.
– Features like customized headlines and controlled viewing frequency are not supported by these tools alone. Manual techniques are still required.
– LinkedIn’s terms prohibit using extensions that conceal identity or modify intended functionality. Using these tools risks account suspension if detected.
In summary, while third-party tools may provide some additional anonymity, significant limitations apply and manual techniques are still recommended for controlling your LinkedIn profile visibility.
LinkedIn Premium Accounts
Having a Premium account on LinkedIn does not enable anonymous profile viewing. LinkedIn Premium provides additional capabilities like advanced search filters, expanded profile views, and messaging – but the same rules around profile view notifications apply. Profile owners are still notified when Premium subscribers view their profiles.
The “Anonymous Browsing” feature with Premium accounts allows searching and browsing job postings anonymously, not member profiles.
Business and Recruiter Accounts
With business and recruiter accounts on LinkedIn, additional profile data may be available depending on your account type. However, the profile view notification rules remain the same.
When viewing member profiles on a Business or Recruiter account:
– Profile owners will still receive real-time notifications that you viewed their profile.
– Your account name will still appear in the “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” section.
– Access to expanded profiles does not enable anonymous viewing. Notifications are still sent.
So while business/recruiter accounts provide more profile data, they do not allow concealed viewing of member profiles.
Showing Profile Viewer Names
As the profile owner, LinkedIn does give you some control over who can see the names of people viewing your profile:
– **Your Connections** – Connections on LinkedIn will see the names of who has viewed your profile.
– **All LinkedIn Members** – You can expand visibility to show profile viewers to all LinkedIn members, not just connections.
– **Only You** – Alternatively, you can limit the visibility to only show profile viewers to yourself. Public visibility can be disabled.
Visibility Setting | Who Can See Viewers |
---|---|
Your Connections | Your 1st-degree connections |
All LinkedIn Members | All members on LinkedIn |
Only You | Only visible to your account |
These settings control who can see the list of names – but do not impact notifications. Profile owners are always notified in real-time when someone views their profile.
Profile Viewer Visibility on LinkedIn
Beyond the account holder’s visibility settings, your own profile settings can also impact whether your name shows up as a profile viewer.
If you adjust your profile settings to exclude your name from search engines or from viewable lists on LinkedIn, your name may not be visible in “Who’s Viewed Your Profile”. For example:
– If you exclude your profile from search engine indexing, your name may not appear as a viewer.
– If you adjust list visibility to exclude your name from appearing on LinkedIn lists, your name may not show up.
So by tweaking these profile settings, you may be able to obscure your profile viewing activity – even if the account holder has enabled public viewer visibility. However, the account holder would still receive a real-time notification of the profile view.
Conclusion
In summary, while you cannot hide the fact that you viewed someone’s LinkedIn profile, you do have some options as a profile viewer to limit Associations and reduce visibility:
– Maintain a separate account for anonymous viewing
– Adjust your headline and name visibility settings
– View profiles infrequently or use private browsing modes
– Leverage company pages to obscure individual views
– Connect with people directly if you want them to know you viewed their profile
As a profile owner, you also have controls over who can see your list of profile viewers. But notifications themselves cannot be hidden – LinkedIn considers mutual profile transparency to be an important part of their professional network.
So with the proper precautions, you can take steps to minimize LinkedIn profile viewing disclosures and balance privacy with the need to view member profiles for business or recruiting purposes. But true anonymous profile viewing is not feasible given LinkedIn’s design and feature set.