With over 800 million members, LinkedIn is one of the largest professional networking platforms on the internet. While the site can provide great opportunities to connect with colleagues and advance your career, some users eventually decide they want to delete their account and remove their personal information from the platform.
Fortunately, LinkedIn makes it possible to permanently delete your account. However, the process requires navigating LinkedIn’s privacy settings and sending a formal request to customer support. Read on to learn how to remove all of your information from LinkedIn in 6 simple steps.
Step 1: Download a Copy of Your LinkedIn Data
Before deleting your account, it’s wise to download a copy of your LinkedIn data for your records. This includes your profile info, connections, messages, interests, and more. Here’s how to request your data archive:
- Go to your LinkedIn Account Settings
- Find and select “Getting a copy of your data” under “Data privacy”
- Enter your account password when prompted
- Choose which data types you want to download – your options are profile, connections, network updates, interests, jobs, messages, ads, payments, drafts, and your entire account history
- Select your desired download format (HTML or JSON file)
- Enter your email address and select “Request archive”
LinkedIn will email you a link to download your archive when it’s ready. This usually takes about 24 hours but can take up to 48 hours in some cases.
Step 2: Disconnect LinkedIn from Other Apps and Services
Before closing your LinkedIn account, it’s important to disconnect the platform from any other apps or services you’ve given access to your profile and data. This includes:
- Other social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook
- Third-party apps like those for posting updates or managing contacts
- Sites where you use LinkedIn to log in or comment, like news outlets
- Email services like Gmail or Outlook
To revoke access, go to your LinkedIn Settings and select “Third party apps” under “Accounts”. You’ll see a list of all the apps and sites you’ve granted permission to connect with LinkedIn. Select “Revoke” next to each one to disconnect them.
You should also check your other social media and email accounts and disconnect any LinkedIn integration in those settings as well.
Step 3: Hide Your LinkedIn Profile
Before deleting your account, you can choose to simply hide your LinkedIn profile from other members. This makes your profile invisible in search results and to your connections. To hide your profile:
- Go to your LinkedIn Privacy Settings
- Next to “Profile visibility”, select “Private mode”
This will immediately make your full profile invisible to others on LinkedIn. You can still sign in and access your account while it’s in private mode.
Step 4: Disable Activity Broadcasts and Email Notifications
For additional privacy as you prepare to delete your account, turn off features that actively engage and notify others of your LinkedIn activity. This includes:
- Activity broadcasts – Other users are notified when you add connections, make posts, celebrate a work anniversary, etc. Turn this off in Settings > Communications.
- Email notifications – Disable weekly and daily digest emails as well as notifications about new messages, connections, etc. Adjust these in Settings > Communications > Email preferences.
With broadcasts and notifications turned off, your activity on LinkedIn in your final days on the platform will be more private.
Step 5: Remove Connections
If you want to remove yourself from your connections’ networks as well, you can delete them before closing your account completely. To remove a connection:
- Go to your connections list
- Find the connection you want to remove
- Select the three dots icon next to their name, then choose “Remove connection”
- Confirm you want to remove the connection
Repeat this for every connection you want to delete. While not required, removing your connections further dissociates you from LinkedIn.
Step 6: Request Account Closure
Once you’ve completed the steps above, you’re ready to permanently delete your LinkedIn account. Do this by submitting a formal account closure request:
- Go to the LinkedIn Help Center and search for “Close your account”
- Select “I would like to permanently close my account”
- Enter your first name, last name, and email address associated with your account
- Select your reason for leaving LinkedIn from the dropdown menu
- Enter your account password
- Check the box confirming you want to close your account
- Select “Submit”
LinkedIn will send you an email confirming they’ve received your account closure request. Within 24 hours, you’ll get another email verifying your account has been permanently closed and all your data has been removed from LinkedIn’s systems.
Important Things to Know About Closing Your LinkedIn Account
While LinkedIn makes it possible to permanently remove your presence, there are a few important things to know about the account deletion process:
- LinkedIn will remove your profile, posts, connections, and all other data. However, some info may remain in backups or logs for up to 90 days.
- If you have a Premium account, you will lose any unused portion of your subscription.
- Others may still have messages or connections associated with you in their accounts.
- If you simply deactivate your account, it can be reactivated within 60 days.
- Once your account is permanently closed, it can’t ever be reactivated. You would have to create a brand new account.
- Deleting your personal account won’t remove company pages you manage or sponsored content.
While LinkedIn removes your personal presence when you close your account, traces of you may still remain in other users’ connections and in mentions within posts and comments.
Conclusion
Completely removing yourself from LinkedIn takes a bit of time and effort – you must download your data, unlink connected apps, hide your profile, turn off notifications, remove connections, and submit an account closure request. However, the platform provides the self-service tools to do this while retaining a copy of your information.
With over 675 million members, LinkedIn can feel like an inescapable part of professional networking. But users do maintain the ability to delete their accounts and eliminate their information from LinkedIn’s control. Just be sure to follow each step carefully and know that remnants of your presence may persist in other users’ data.
Overall, deciding whether to leave LinkedIn is a personal choice. While the platform can be useful for career development and making connections, you may ultimately feel your privacy outweighs those benefits. Evaluate your own reasons for wanting to leave and the risks involved – with the steps in this guide, you can remove your personal data footprint from the site.
LinkedIn provides the necessary self-service account deletion options to exercise your right to leave. However, remnants of your presence will likely endure in the data retained by other members. Walk through the steps methodically, closing off connectivity, shutting down notifications, and submitting the formal request to permanently remove your account. You’ll then be free from the platform, albeit not without a digital trace.
With vigilance and patience, one can wipe their personal information from the vast LinkedIn landscape. Arm yourself with the knowledge of each required step and commit to disentangling completely. You hold the power to dissolve your singular profile into the digital ether. Though shadows of your data traces may remain here and there, closing that account door firmly behind you liberates your identity from LinkedIn’s grasp.
In our highly networked society, removing yourself entirely can seem an impossible task. But by methodically disconnecting, dismantling and deleting your LinkedIn presence, you can reclaim your personal domain. It will take persistence and diligence to purge every last element. Despite any lingering digital dust, freedom from the platform that no longer suits you is within reach. With each connection severed and account deactivated, you pave the passage to take back your identity.
The intricately entwined nature of social platforms makes a total wipeout of one’s presence an arduous endeavor. LinkedIn’s firmly rooted networking tools and tangled data links resist removal. But by strategically downloading your information, disabling notifications and broadcasts, and initiating permanent account deletion, you can erase your singular imprint. Though shadows will remain in your absence, you can reclaim authority over your identity’s manifestation. So plot your meticulous exit, say your goodbyes, and venture boldly away from the platform that no longer serves your purpose. The liberation of your personal data awaits.
We inhabit an age of perpetual connectivity, where our information feels scattered across apps, sites and servers. Achieving a clean break requires unraveling each digital tendril that tethers us to a platform. But by methodically downloading your data, disconnecting third-party apps, hiding your profile and removing connections, you can pian your controlled exit from LinkedIn. While remnants may haunt the digital ether, you can rest easier knowing your information is no longer housed within systems you did not consent to. So be persistent and thorough in severing each tie. And embrace the empowerment that comes from reclaiming authority over your data’s destiny.