LinkedIn’s privacy settings allow users to control aspects of their profile and activity that can be seen by others on the platform. Here is a quick overview of some of the key things that can be managed through LinkedIn’s privacy settings:
Profile Viewing Options
You can control who can view your full profile on LinkedIn. The options are:
- Your connections only
- Your connections and members of your network
- All LinkedIn members
Setting your profile to be viewable by “Your connections only” or “Your connections and members of your network” enables you to limit access to your full profile only to people you are connected to on LinkedIn.
Activity Broadcasts
LinkedIn automatically generates notifications about your activity on the platform, such as when you update your profile, make a new connection, post an article, etc. These notifications appear in the feeds of your connections by default.
You can disable your activity broadcasts completely so these notifications are not generated at all. Or you can customize them to exclude certain activities from generating notifications.
Viewers of Your Profile
LinkedIn allows you to see who has viewed your profile recently. You can control whether you want this information to be visible to others.
Options include:
- Display profile viewers to no one
- Display profile viewers only to you
- Display profile viewers to your connections only
Setting this to “Display profile viewers only to you” hides the list of who has viewed your profile from your connections and other LinkedIn members.
Sharing Profile Edits
When you make edits to your profile, such as adding a new position, skill, photo etc., you can control whether these profile edits are shared as activity notifications to your network.
You can disable sharing of all profile edits, or select individual edits to share or not share.
Account Privacy Settings
LinkedIn allows you to control some broader account-level privacy settings related to your data and activity on the platform, including:
- Ad preferences – controls whether your LinkedIn activity and profile data is used to personalize ads you see
- Data sharing with 3rd party apps and services connected to your LinkedIn account
- Visibility of your LinkedIn activity and content in search engine results
- Visibility of your profile in the LinkedIn member directory
Who’s Viewed Your Profile
By default, LinkedIn shows you who has viewed your profile recently. You can control whether this list is visible to others. Options include:
- Display profile viewers to no one – completely hides the list
- Display profile viewers only to you – you can see it, but connections can’t
- Display profile viewers to your connections only – connections can see the list too
Setting this to “Display profile viewers only to you” prevents your connections from seeing who has been looking at your profile.
Profile Photo Visibility
You can control whether your profile photo is visible in different sections of LinkedIn. Options include:
- Profile – Can people see your photo on your profile?
- Sharing – Can people see your photo when you share content?
- InMail – Can people see your photo if you send them an InMail message?
This allows you to show your photo only in specific contexts if desired.
Search Engine Visibility
You can control whether your profile and activity on LinkedIn appears in search engine results like Google and Bing. Options include:
- Do not allow search engines outside of LinkedIn to index your profile
- Allow search engines outside of LinkedIn to index your public profile
This setting gives you control over your LinkedIn presence in broader web searches.
Ads Based on Your Activity
LinkedIn uses your activity and profile data to personalize ads you see on their platform. You can opt out of this type of ad targeting in your account settings.
Disabling this means your activity won’t influence the ads displayed to you on LinkedIn.
Profile Discoverability
You can control whether people can find your profile via the LinkedIn members directory and search. Options include:
- Make my profile visible to no one
- Make my profile visible only to people signed into LinkedIn
- Make my profile visible to everyone on the internet
Setting this to “visible to no one” removes your profile from LinkedIn’s directory and search results.
Activity Broadcasts
LinkedIn automatically notifies your connections when you do things like update your profile, share an article, etc.
You can turn off these notifications so your activity isn’t broadcasted. Or you can selectively turn them off for certain activities.
Profile Viewer Insights
Shows you data on who has viewed your profile – their industry, location, etc. You can disable this feature.
When disabled, you won’t see which companies and titles are viewing your profile the most.
Sharing Profile Changes
When you update your profile, you can control whether these changes are shared as notifications with your network.
You can disable sharing profile changes completely, or select individual changes to share/not share.
Non-Connections Viewing Your Activities
By default, LinkedIn members who aren’t your connections can see some of your activities, like articles you share.
You can limit visibility of your activity only to your connections rather than all LinkedIn members.
Conclusion
In summary, LinkedIn gives you granular control over the visibility of your profile and activity timeline. Key things that can be configured include:
- Who can view your full profile
- Visibility of your profile in searches and the directory
- Which activities are broadcasted as notifications
- Whether profile viewers are shown to others
- Use of your data for advertising purposes
Leveraging these settings appropriately allows you to manage your professional presence on LinkedIn.