LinkedIn allows you to control who can view your contact information like your email address, phone number, and physical address. By default, your contact info is visible only to you. However, you can adjust your settings to allow your connections, recruiters, and others to see some or all of your contact details.
Who can see my email address?
Your email address is private by default on LinkedIn. Only you can see your email address when you are logged in to your account. You have a few options for allowing others to see your email:
- Connections – You can allow your 1st degree connections on LinkedIn to see your email address in your profile. Go to your profile, click “View profile” and edit Contact Info. Under “Show my email address to”, choose “Your Connections.”
- Your network – Choose “Your network” to allow 2nd and 3rd degree connections to see your email as well.
- Everyone – Select “Everyone” to make your email public on your LinkedIn profile.
Who can see my phone number?
Your phone number is also private by default. You can adjust the visibility just like your email address:
- Connections – Allow 1st degree connections to view your phone number.
- Your network – Let 2nd and 3rd degree connections see your number too.
- Everyone – Make your phone number public on your profile.
Who can see my address?
Your physical address (city, state, country) has the same visibility settings as your email and phone. You can let Connections, Your Network, or Everyone see your location in your profile.
Adjusting contact info visibility
Here are the steps to update who can see your contact info on LinkedIn:
- Go to your profile page
- Click “View profile”
- Go to the Contact Info section
- Click “Edit contact info”
- For email, phone, and address, choose your desired visibility:
- Only you
- Your Connections
- Your Network
- Everyone
- Click “Save” to apply changes
Contact info visibility for Premium members
With a LinkedIn Premium account, you have a couple additional options for controlling your contact info visibility:
- Selective visibility – You can hide your contact details from specific connections in your network, while leaving it visible to others.
- Private mode – This hides your entire profile and network activity from someone while staying connected.
Recruiters and contact info
Even if you limit visibility of your email and phone number, LinkedIn Recruiters who pay for subscriptions may still be able to view your full contact details when accessing candidate profiles. You can adjust this in your account settings:
- Go to the Privacy & Settings page
- Click “Change” under How recruiters see your profile
- Choose from:
- “Only recruiters you have engaged with”
- “All recruiters”
Blocking users from viewing your profile
You can block specific members from viewing your LinkedIn profile, including your contact info. Here’s how:
- Go to their profile page
- Click the More icon (three dots) next to the Message button
- Select Block or report > Block
When you block someone, they will no longer be able to view your profile or contact details. You also won’t appear in their search results.
Showing limited profile information to search engines
You can choose to show only your name, headline, and profile photo to anonymous site visitors who find you through search engines like Google. This prevents search bots from indexing your full profile details. To enable limited profile visibility:
- Go to Privacy & Settings
- Under How others see your LinkedIn activity, click Change
- Check the box for “Show limited profile information”
- Save changes
Conclusion
In summary, LinkedIn gives you granular control over who can view your contact information like email, phone number, and location. By default, these details are only visible to you when logged into your account.
You can selectively show your contact info to Connections, your network, paid subscribers, and search engines. Premium members can restrict visibility from specific connections while remaining connected. Understand the options to best manage your professional contacts and online privacy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I hide my LinkedIn profile completely?
No, LinkedIn doesn’t allow you to fully hide your profile from others. But you can show limited details to search engines, block individual users, and adjust visibility of contact info and activity.
Does turning off public profile visibility remove you from Google?
It removes your full profile details. But your name and headline may still appear in Google search results, unless you show limited profile info.
Can I show my email or phone number to connections only?
Yes, adjust the visibility settings for email/phone to “Your Connections” to show them just to your 1st degree connections.
Contact Field | Visibility Options |
---|---|
Email address | You, Your Connections, Your Network, Everyone |
Phone number | You, Your Connections, Your Network, Everyone |
Location | You, Your Connections, Your Network, Everyone |
If I block someone, are they notified?
No, blocking a connection on LinkedIn is anonymous. They will not get any notification that you blocked them.
Can I prevent search engines from indexing my profile?
Not completely, but you can show limited details like just your name and headline to avoid exposing your full profile.
Key Takeaways
- Your email, phone, and address are private by default on LinkedIn.
- Adjust visibility settings to allow Connections, your Network, or Everyone to see contact info.
- Block specific members from viewing your profile and contact details.
- Limit info shown to search engines to protect privacy.
- Premium members get more options like selective visibility.