LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 800 million members. As a professional networking platform, LinkedIn allows you to connect with colleagues, find jobs, build your professional brand, and more. However, with all the personal and professional information you share on LinkedIn, managing your privacy settings is crucial.
In this article, we’ll provide quick answers to common questions about controlling your privacy on LinkedIn and dive deeper into the various privacy settings and tools available. Whether you want to limit who can view your profile, customize your LinkedIn visibility, or control how people communicate with you, this guide will help you take charge of your privacy.
Quick Answers
How do I make my LinkedIn profile private?
You can’t make your entire LinkedIn profile private, but you can control the visibility of individual profile sections like your connections, publications, education history, etc. Go to your profile, click “View profile” and use the drop-down menus next to each section to customize visibility.
Can I hide my LinkedIn profile from search engines?
Yes, go to your profile settings and uncheck the box next to “Allow search engines outside of LinkedIn to link to your profile.” This will remove your profile from Google and other search results.
How do I stop someone from viewing my LinkedIn profile?
You can block individual members from viewing your profile. Go to their profile, click the “More” icon, and select “Block”. This prevents them from viewing your profile or searching for you on LinkedIn.
Can I see who views my LinkedIn profile?
LinkedIn’s premium account options allow you to see more profile view details like names, companies, titles, locations, and frequency. Upgraded accounts also provide visibility into who viewed your posts, searched your name, and more.
How do I manage messages from people I don’t know?
Adjust your messaging preferences under “Preferences > Communications” to control who can message you. Options include allowing messages from everyone, only people in your network, only people with a shared connection, or no one.
Customizing Your Profile Visibility
One of the key ways to control your privacy on LinkedIn is by customizing exactly who can view the various sections of your profile. Here are the steps to configure your profile visibility settings:
- Click on “View profile” from your profile page.
- For each section of your profile, use the dropdown menu to select a visibility option:
- Your Connections – Only your 1st-degree connections can view the section
- Your Network – 1st and 2nd-degree connections can view
- All LinkedIn members – Anyone on LinkedIn can view
- Public – Visible to anyone even without a LinkedIn account
- Be sure to click “Save” after changing any visibility settings.
Decide which sections contain sensitive information to limit. Typically you may want to restrict visibility for:
- Contacts
- Connections
- Full profile viewing history
- Recommendations
- Accomplishments
- Education details like grades, courses, etc.
- Courses
- Test scores
- Organizations
- Volunteer work
Leaving sections like your summary, work experience, and skills open to the public allows you to maintain an informative profile for networking while protecting more sensitive info.
Limiting Profile Views
Beyond customizing visibility settings, there are additional options to limit your public profile views:
Disable profile photo sharing
Prevent your profile photo from being visible in search results and on your profile to non-connections. Go to “Preferences > Profile” and uncheck “Share profile photo.”
Remove your last name
Using just a first name or initials adds a layer of anonymity. You can exclude your last name in the personal info section of your profile.
Exclude from search engine indexing
As mentioned above, go to your profile settings and uncheck the box next to “Allow search engines outside of LinkedIn to link to your profile” to be removed from Google/Bing searches.
Buy a premium account
Paid LinkedIn accounts like Premium Career allow you to see who has viewed your profile which may deter some casual profile snooping. You also get visibility into how people found you via search.
Blocking Profiles
If there are specific individuals you want to prevent from interacting with you on LinkedIn, LinkedIn’s blocking feature is the simplest option. Here’s how to block a connection:
- Go to their profile page.
- Click the “More” icon in the top right corner.
- Select “Block” to confirm.
Blocking someone prevents them from:
- Viewing your profile or posts
- Connecting with you
- Sending you messages
- Adding you to groups
- Commenting on or reacting to your content
- Finding you via search on LinkedIn
The block is anonymous, and blocked members will not be notified. Keep in mind blocking someone won’t prevent interactions outside of LinkedIn like on other social media, through email, or in person.
Managing Messages
On LinkedIn you can receive direct messages from your connections, group members, people you follow, and in some cases anyone with a LinkedIn account. To control who can message you directly:
- Go to “Preferences > Communications”
- Under “Receiving messages from people you don’t know,” select one of the following options:
- Everyone – Receive messages from anyone (default setting)
- Within your network – Only 1st and 2nd degree connections can message you
- People you’ve shared connections with – Only direct connections or connections of connections
- No one – Turn off messages from people not already connected to you
- Click “Save changes”
This allows you to filter out unsolicited outreach from random LinkedIn members looking to connect, pitch business deals, recruit for job openings, etc.
Keywords to avoid
Certain keywords in your profile like “hiring” or “job search” tend to attract more unsolicited messages. Avoid including these keywords if you want to limit incoming messages.
Review your pending connection requests
Accepting connection requests allows someone to message you. Carefully vet requests and ignore ones that seem spammy.
Adjust post audience targeting
If you actively post updates, you can also control who sees your posts and can comment/message you based on them. Target your posts only to connections rather than LinkedIn’s default “Public” setting.
Who’s Viewed Your Profile
LinkedIn’s paid Premium accounts provide the ability to see expanded insights into who has been viewing your profile. Here’s what you can see with premium accounts:
Profile view details
See the names, companies, titles, locations, and industries of who viewed your profile in the last 90 days.
Frequency
Learn if viewers are one-time or recurring profile viewers.
Search appearances
Find out when your profile appeared in search results and who searched for you by name or company.
Post views
See which LinkedIn members viewed your posts, articles, activity, and content.
Who engaged with your content
Discover who liked, commented, shared, etc. your updates and posts.
Additional Privacy Settings
Here are a few other relevant privacy controls available in your LinkedIn account settings:
Ad preferences
Manage the types of ads you see and information used for ad targeting under “Preferences > Advertising preferences.” Opt out of personalized ads if desired.
Partner advertising
Control whether LinkedIn shares your name, photo, company, etc. to generate “Lead Gen Forms” and other sponsored content from partners.
Profile viewing options
Premium accounts allow you to choose whether your own profile views are counted in the total number shown on your profile.
Google ads personalization
Opt into or out of Google ad personalization based on LinkedIn data. This setting is under “Privacy and settings > Partners > Google ads personalization.”
Searchable by recruiters
Toggle on/off whether recruiters can find your profile in LinkedIn Recruiter platform searches. This is under job seeking preferences.
Data privacy settings
Review all the data LinkedIn collects, delete individual data points, and customize your overall privacy preferences.
Conclusion
In summary, LinkedIn gives you robust options around controlling profile visibility, blocking members, limiting incoming messages, and viewing profile viewers – especially with premium accounts. However, some openness and visibility is required for professional networking and to fully leverage the opportunities on LinkedIn.
As you customize your privacy settings on LinkedIn, aim to find the right balance between maintaining your professional connections and brand while protecting sensitive information and preventing unwanted outreach. Always be cautious about what you choose to share publicly and optimize your profile based on your specific priorities whether job search, career management, client outreach or other objectives.