Quick Answers
There are a few ways someone could have found your email address on LinkedIn:
– Through your profile if you have your email listed publicly
– Through connecting with you directly on LinkedIn
– By guessing your email format if you have your name and company available
– Through settings that share your email with 3rd party apps
– By messaging you on LinkedIn which reveals your email
– Through premium search tools like LinkedIn Recruiter accounts
Public Emails
If you have your email address listed publicly on your LinkedIn profile, then anyone can find it just by viewing your profile. On LinkedIn, you can choose to display your email publicly, display it only to direct connections, or choose not to display it at all.
Having a public email on your LinkedIn profile makes it very easy for anyone to obtain. All they have to do is visit your profile and your email will be right there plainly visible.
Many LinkedIn users decide to make their email public in order to allow people to easily contact them for business opportunities, networking, recruiting, etc. However, this also means that anyone can see that email and potentially use it for unwanted solicitation.
So if you want to limit how freely available your email is, be sure to adjust your settings to only show it to direct connections or remove it entirely. But if you have set it to public view, that’s almost certainly how someone found your email while browsing LinkedIn.
Changing Your Email Settings
To change who can view your email on your LinkedIn profile:
1. Click on the ‘Me’ icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage and select ‘Settings & Privacy’
2. Click on ‘Privacy’ from the menu
3. Under ‘Contact info’, click on ‘Edit your public profile & URL’
4. Scroll down and adjust the setting for ‘Show email address on your profile’ to your desired level of visibility
This will change whether your email is available to the general public or just direct connections moving forward.
Connecting Directly
Another way someone may have obtained your email on LinkedIn is by connecting with you directly via LinkedIn. When someone sends you an invitation to connect on the platform, LinkedIn will reveal each person’s email address to the other once the connection is mutually accepted.
So if you’ve recently accepted a connection invitation from someone you don’t know well, it’s possible they connected with you specifically to gain access to your email address.
LinkedIn allows anyone to send connection invitations – you don’t have to be a direct contact or have mutual connections. So it’s possible to have strangers make requests to connect through LinkedIn.
Some savvy networkers even use automated tools to send bulk connection requests in order to mine for email addresses. If you notice you’re getting connection invites from random people, be cautious accepting them or you may be unintentionally sharing your private email.
Evaluating Connection Requests
When receiving LinkedIn connection invitations, consider the following to determine if it’s someone you want to share your email with:
– Do you know this person or have mutual connections? Connections within your network are less risky.
– Does their profile seem legitimate and complete? Blank or scam profiles are red flags.
– Does the request include a customized message? More trustworthy than generic invites.
– Do they share any groups, schools, or employers with you? More likely to be a valid contact.
– Do they have lots of connections already? Scammers often have few connections.
Only connecting selectively can help avoid inadvertently handing out your email to arbitrary people. Use connection requests to expand your network, not exploit it.
Guessed Email Format
Even without directly viewing or being granted access to your email on LinkedIn, skilled users can often guess or deduce a person’s likely email address simply based on the information in their profile. By figuring out the common email naming formats used by someone’s organization, it is possible to try and construct what their address might be.
For example, if you have both your name and employer available on your public LinkedIn profile, someone can surmise your work email is likely in the format:
Or other variants like:
[[email protected]]
[[email protected]]
[[email protected]]
This educated guesswork allows people to take the information you do have publicly listed and try to crack your email format based on common conventions.
The more information someone has about your name, employer, location, etc – the easier it becomes to derive possible email addresses to target you with. Limiting the details visible to the general public makes it harder to guess your emails.
Obscuring Your Email Format
To make it more difficult for others to guess your email format on LinkedIn:
– Use a more ambiguous display name rather than full name
– Exclude or abbreviate your company name
– Avoid using an email containing your commonly known name
– Do not include your exact job title or department
– Consider using a personal email address not tied to your employer
– Turn off the setting allowing anyone to follow your profile
The less specific details available, the lower the chance they can accurately construct your real work email. Never fully rely on obscurity though, as motivated people can still get lucky with some educated guesses.
Linked Email Settings
LinkedIn also allows you to connect your account to external apps and services for various purposes. Examples include connecting with email services like Outlook and Gmail, CRM tools like Salesforce, and lots of other business software tools.
However, in order to enable these integrations, you usually need to authorize the sharing of your main LinkedIn email address with these third party apps.
So if you’ve ever linked your LinkedIn profile to another tool or platform, it’s possible your email was retrieved from LinkedIn that way if proper permissions were granted.
Looking at your list of authorized apps in your account settings can show if you’ve inadvertently allowed your email to be accessed:
Review Third Party Apps
To see which external apps have permission to access your LinkedIn email and data:
1. Click on the ‘Me’ icon at the top of LinkedIn and choose ‘Settings & Privacy’
2. Select ‘Partner Integrations’ from the menu
3. Look under ‘Active Apps’ or ‘Expired Apps’ for any unfamiliar services
4. Revoke access for any dubious or unused apps
Be very selective about which apps you allow to connect with your LinkedIn account. Remove permissions from any that don’t have an obvious and legitimate need for your private email and data.
Messaging on LinkedIn
One permission that’s enabled for all LinkedIn members by default is allowing any other member to send you messages. When someone sends you a direct message within LinkedIn, it will display both person’s emails at the top of the message thread.
This means anyone can message you first on LinkedIn and gain immediate visibility to your private email that way. Depending on your notification settings, you may not even be aware someone has done this.
You can disable the ability for just anyone to message you, which will prevent your email from being revealed through this method.
Changing Messaging Settings
To disable open messaging from anyone on LinkedIn:
1. Click the ‘Me’ icon and choose ‘Settings & Privacy’
2. Select ‘Communications’ from the menu
3. Under ‘Messaging preferences’, switch off ‘Let only people you follow or are connected to message you’
4. Save changes
This will limit messages only to your direct connections. Alternatively, you can keep open messaging enabled but disable email notifications for new messages to better control when your email might be visible.
Premium Search Tools
LinkedIn also offers paid subscriptions that unlock additional features, one of the most popular being LinkedIn Recruiter. This gives access to advanced search capabilities and data filtering for identifying potential job candidates.
Subscribers can apply filters to surface member email addresses that meet specified criteria. So it’s possible someone found your email by using Recruiter or another premium search tool, even without any direct connection.
While regular members can be found this way, it is aimed more at recruiters leveraging LinkedIn for talent sourcing. But it demonstrates the greater exposure of your email address when using such a public professional networking platform designed to connect people.
Conclusions
To summarize the potential ways someone may have found your email address through LinkedIn:
– Listed plainly on your public profile
– Shared after accepting a direct connection
– Guessed by your name and company format
– Accessed by linked third party apps
– Revealed through messaging you first
– Uncovered via premium search tools
The best form of protection is being selective about what information you share publicly and who you connect with. Also limit integrations with other apps and services when possible.
While still allowing you to benefit from LinkedIn, applying privacy best practices makes it much harder for arbitrary people to obtain your private contact information without your consent.
Key Steps to Protect Your Email
– Set profile email visibility to ‘Only me’ or ‘Your connections’ only
– Evaluate connection requests carefully before accepting
– Avoid detailing your full name, employer, or other specifics
– Revoke access for any unknown third party apps
– Disable open messaging from anyone on LinkedIn
– Be wary of enabling external integrations in general
With the right settings and cautious sharing, you can maintain control over your LinkedIn email address and prevent unwanted exposure. Treat your contact information like any other personal data you want to keep private from random parties accessing your profile.