LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform with over 690 million users worldwide as of 2019. With its massive userbase, LinkedIn has become an invaluable tool for professional networking, recruiting, job searching, and building business connections.
One of the key features of LinkedIn is the ability to view who has looked at your profile. This allows users to see which recruiters, hiring managers, and other professionals have viewed their profile recently. However, LinkedIn’s profile view tracking has limitations.
How LinkedIn Tracks Profile Views
When someone views your LinkedIn profile, it is recorded as an “anonymous” viewer under the “Who’s viewed your profile” section. This means you can see that someone looked at your profile, but you won’t see who it was unless they choose to reveal their identity to you.
There are two ways viewers can be identified on LinkedIn:
- Direct connections – If someone you are directly connected with views your profile, you will see their name and headline under your list of profile viewers.
- Shared connections – If you and the viewer have a shared 1st-degree connection, the viewer’s name may be revealed, along with the name of the mutual connection.
In most cases, however, profile viewers will remain anonymous. LinkedIn does this to respect the privacy of its members. Users can look at profiles discreetly without worrying about the person being notified.
Who Can See Your LinkedIn Profile Views?
Your own list of who has viewed your profile is visible only to you. No one else will see the names or companies of people who have looked at your profile. The only exception is when someone pays for premium LinkedIn services.
With a premium account on LinkedIn, you can see the names of viewers beyond your direct connections. There are three paid account levels on LinkedIn:
- Premium Career – See viewers up to 2nd-degree connections
- Sales Navigator Professional – See viewers up to 3rd-degree connections
- Recruiter Lite or Recruiter – See viewers’ names regardless of connection level
So if you want to be able to identify more profile viewers, you’ll need a premium account. But without a paid account, the list of who has viewed your profile is confidential to you.
Does Looking at Profiles Show up in Your Activity?
In addition to tracking profile views, LinkedIn also records your own browsing activity in the “Who’s viewed your profile” section. Any profiles you have recently looked at will show up in the list.
Importantly, this activity is not visible to anyone else. Other users cannot see which profiles, companies or groups you have looked at on LinkedIn. Your browsing history remains private.
How to Manage Your LinkedIn Activity Settings
You can control which types of activities are recorded under “Who’s viewed your profile” in your LinkedIn account settings:
- Go to your LinkedIn profile and click on the “Me” icon in the top nav bar
- Select “Settings & Privacy” from the dropdown menu
- Click on “Privacy” in the left sidebar
- Under “How others see your LinkedIn activity”, adjust visibility settings as desired
By default, your profile views, recent profile views, and activity broadcasts will be visible to you only. Uncheck any boxes if you want to disable recording of that activity.
Does Turning Off Profile View Tracking Remove You From Others’ Views?
No, disabling your own profile view tracking does not remove your name from other users’ lists when you look at their profiles. Your viewing activity is still recorded on their end. The setting only controls if you can see your own browsing history.
Can You View LinkedIn Profiles Anonymously?
There is no way to look at LinkedIn profiles 100% anonymously. Even if you view profiles in an incognito/private browser window, LinkedIn still tracks this activity but shows it only as an “anonymous” viewer.
Some options to view profiles more privately include:
- Blocking the user so they no longer receive notifications when you view their profile
- Using an alternate LinkedIn account
- Viewing profiles minimally if you want to remain anonymous
Keep in mind you will still appear as an anonymous viewer. The only way to view a profile without any trace is if you are logged out of LinkedIn completely.
Does LinkedIn Notify Someone When You View Their Profile?
LinkedIn does not directly notify users when someone views their profile. However, there are some scenarios where a user can tell if you have looked at their profile:
- If you appear as a 3rd degree or Group connection viewer, they may be able to identify you through the shared connection
- When you view someone’s profile, it may trigger a notification saying that viewer is “keeping tabs” on their LinkedIn activity
- Frequent profile views may show up as multiple “anonymous” viewer entries
Other than these cases, your identity and activity remain anonymous. LinkedIn believes in maintaining privacy and avoiding unwanted solicitations.
Can You See Who Views Your LinkedIn Profile on Mobile?
Yes, the LinkedIn mobile app for iOS and Android provides the same profile viewing insights as the desktop website. To see who has viewed your profile on mobile:
- Launch the LinkedIn app and tap on your profile icon
- Tap on the “View profile views” option
- This will display your recent profile visitors and activity
The mobile experience is optimized to display the most essential information. But you can still identify viewers and track your own viewing activity.
Does LinkedIn Notify When You View Someone’s Private Profile?
If a LinkedIn member has set their profile to private, you will need to connect with them first in order to view their full profile. In this case, when you send a connection request, the user will see that you viewed their profile as part of the request notification.
However, if you cancel the connection request before they accept it, the notification disappears. So you can essentially preview private profiles without alerting the user, as long as you cancel the pending request.
Who Receives Notifications When You View Profiles?
In summary, here is an overview of who may be notified when you view LinkedIn profiles:
Connection Level | Notification Recipient |
---|---|
1st degree connections | Direct connections if you appear in their viewer list |
2nd degree connections | No notification |
3rd degree connections | No notification (name visible to premium users) |
Group connections | No notification (name visible to premium users) |
Non-connections | No notification |
Essentially, the only scenario where LinkedIn directly alerts a user that you viewed their profile is when you have a 1st degree connection.
Does LinkedIn Notify Connections When You View Profiles?
Outside of 1st degree connections who may see your name in their viewer list, LinkedIn does not proactively notify your connections when you view other users’ profiles. However, there are couple indirect ways they may find out:
- Your connections can see a shared 3rd degree connection in their own viewer list, which indicates you looked at that profile
- “Keeping tabs” notifications if you view a connection’s connections frequently
But in general, your browsing activity is meant to be private to you. LinkedIn does not broadcast notifications when you view people in your network.
Can Companies See Who Views Their LinkedIn Page?
Companies can see aggregated analytics on visitors to their LinkedIn Company Pages. This includes data like:
- Total page views
- Follower growth
- Engagement with posts
- Follower demographics
However, companies cannot see the identities of individual visitors or profile viewers to their pages. Your personal activity remains anonymous unless you engage directly with the company.
Conclusion
In summary, while LinkedIn does track profile views, the ability to see who specifically is looking at your profile is limited. First-degree connections may be visible, while outside of that most users remain anonymous.
LinkedIn also does not proactively notify users when someone views their profile. Some basic insights are provided into who is engaging with your profile, but most identity and activity details remain private.
By balancing visibility with privacy, LinkedIn aims to provide valuable professional insights while respecting user preferences and preventing unwanted solicitation. But for those who want deeper visibility, LinkedIn does offer premium account options to see expanded profile visitor details.
So in general, unless you have a premium account, expect profile browsing on LinkedIn to be tracked but anonymous. Your activity remains largely confidential, with visibility controlled by each user’s preferences and network connections.
LinkedIn’s approach allows for productive professional engagement, while letting you research people and companies discreetly as needed. Just be aware that some visibility occurs, so profile viewing should be done appropriately – focus on making meaningful connections instead of snooping!
Now that you know more about how LinkedIn handles profile viewing, you can engage thoughtfully and make the most of LinkedIn’s networking tools. Remember to view profiles ethically, and limit visibility into your own activity if desired. With the right approach, LinkedIn can open up new opportunities and connections to advance your career.
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