With over 850 million members, LinkedIn has become the world’s largest professional networking platform. While the platform offers valuable opportunities to build your professional brand and make connections, many users want more control over their activity and visibility. In 2023, there are several ways LinkedIn members can hide or limit their activity from being publicly viewable.
Change your LinkedIn visibility settings
The most direct way to control what activity is visible on your LinkedIn profile is to adjust your visibility settings. In your LinkedIn account settings, you can change your visibility for profile views, network updates, articles you’ve read, and other activities. Setting any of these options to “Only You” will prevent that activity from being seen.
To access your visibility settings on desktop:
- Click on your profile picture in the top right corner
- Select “Settings & Privacy” from the dropdown menu
- Choose “Visibility” on the left sidebar
- Edit the visibility levels for each activity as desired
On the LinkedIn mobile app:
- Tap on your profile picture in the top left
- Tap “Settings” then choose “Privacy”
- Tap “Profile viewing options” to change who can see your profile views and other activity
Setting your visibility to the strictest level across all categories essentially makes your LinkedIn activity completely private. Keep in mind connections will still be notified if you view their profile or content.
Adjust your LinkedIn feed preferences
Another way to limit your visible activity is to control what actions are published to your connections’ feeds. Any likes, comments, shares, or posts you make will appear in your connections’ feeds by default. You can prevent specific activities from publishing to your connections:
- Go to your LinkedIn Settings
- Select “Notifications” from the left sidebar
- Choose “Feed preferences”
- Uncheck any actions you don’t want shown in your connections’ feeds
With this adjusted, you can remain active by liking and commenting on content, but your connections won’t explicitly see those interactions. You can also select if you want to be notified when your activity appears in someone’s feed.
Use LinkedIn anonymously with private browsing
LinkedIn members can view profiles, groups, and content without their activity being tracked a few different ways:
- Private browsing mode – Most major web browsers have a private or incognito browsing mode that doesn’t save your browsing history or LinkedIn activity. Open LinkedIn in a private browser window and nothing will show up in your history or notifications.
- Temporary anonymous viewing – On a LinkedIn profile, you can click the three dots icon and choose “Anonymous View Profile” to view without the member being notified.
- Logged out browsing – You can also view LinkedIn profiles and content when logged out of your account. No record of your activity will be kept.
Keep in mind that while you are anonymous, paid LinkedIn recruiters have more visibility into “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” and anonymous viewing profiles. But for general purposes, private browsing prevents your name from being shown.
Limit notifications you receive
LinkedIn will send you email and in-app notifications when you are active on the platform. To reduce undesired notifications:
- Go to your LinkedIn Settings and select Notifications
- Review each notification type and uncheck any you don’t wish to receive
- Be sure to also update your individual app notification settings on your device
Turning off non-essential notifications limits distractions and cuts down on clutter in your inbox. You can also mute conversations in your LinkedIn messaging to avoid being notified of further responses.
Remove past LinkedIn activity and posts
Over time, your LinkedIn activity and posts may no longer align with your professional brand or goals. While you can’t erase all past activity, you do have options to remove certain elements:
- Delete old posts – You can remove any articles, photos, links, or status updates you’ve shared. Just go to your profile, select the post, and choose “Delete.”
- Untag yourself – If you’ve been tagged in a post, status update, or photo by a connection, you can untag yourself so it no longer appears on your profile.
- Unlike pages and posts – Don’t forget to unlike company and show pages, as well as any posts you may have liked in the past. This clears them from your profile activity.
- Leave old groups – Leaving outdated groups and conversations removes them from your recent activity.
Periodically pruning your LinkedIn presence allows you to curate the experience you want to present moving forward.
Limit profile views by recruitment role
As a LinkedIn user looking for career opportunities, one visibility setting you can adjust is who can see that you viewed their profile:
- Go to your Settings > Privacy > Profile viewing options
- Choose “Restricted” for “Who can see your viewer profile”
- Enter roles you don’t want notified, such as “Recruiter” or “Headhunter”
With this set, recruiters won’t be notified when you view their profiles. You can still do research to find contacts at companies you’re interested in without concern.
Remove Location Data
LinkedIn automatically pulls location data and displays places you’ve lived/worked on your profile. To remove location visibility:
- Edit your LinkedIn profile
- Delete any location details listed below your name and headline
- Omit location from your work and education descriptions
- Turn your location off in account settings
Location can also appear in some posts and metadata. To limit this, exclude locations in posts and turn off GPS location services on your device.
Use LinkedIn Mode on iOS
iOS 16 added a new LinkedIn Mode that limits advertiser tracking and notifications while using the app. To enable:
- Open Settings on your iPhone
- Go to Privacy & Security > Tracking
- Enable LinkedIn Mode
This prevents LinkedIn from collecting certain data from other companies to target ads. You’ll still see ads, but they won’t be tailored to you. LinkedIn Mode also limits notifications.
Refine recommendations visibility
LinkedIn shows personalized recommendations on your feed based on your profile and activity. Adjust these in your account settings:
- Go to your Settings > Privacy > Recommendations
- Select which recommendations you want enabled or disabled
Turning off all recommendations limits the content you’ll be shown. But it prevents connections from seeing those recommendations on your profile.
Avoid sharing connections publicly
Choose not to display your LinkedIn connections publicly on your profile. This prevents others from targeting your network with invites and messages. To hide connections:
- Go to your public profile
- Select “Hide connections” above your experience section
You can also hide the number of followers you have if you wish to keep that metric private.
Review 3rd party app permissions
Many apps integrate with LinkedIn to access profile data and activity. It’s important to periodically check which 3rd party services have access to your LinkedIn presence and revoke any unnecessary permissions.
- Go to your account Settings > Apps
- Review all authorized apps
- Revoke access to any unfamiliar or unused apps
This ensures your data and activity are not being shared outside of LinkedIn without your knowledge or consent.
Use a unique profile photo
Using your own unique photo for your LinkedIn profile picture, rather than a company logo or other generic image, makes it more difficult for strangers to view your activity. Generic photos allow for pseudo-anonymous browsing of people’s profiles and posts.
Conclusion
Maintaining control over your LinkedIn activity protects your privacy and allows you to curate your professional presence. Take advantage of platform settings to limit visibility, turn off notifications, and remove past engagement on the service. Monitor app permissions, refine your digital footprint, and exercise discretion when interacting on LinkedIn to keep your profile secure.