LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 810 million members worldwide. With so many profiles on the platform, LinkedIn’s search function allows you to find new connections, research companies and individuals, and explore job opportunities. However, you may be wondering – who can see the searches I conduct on LinkedIn?
In short, your LinkedIn searches are private by default. LinkedIn does not share or publish your search history or terms. The exception is when you send an “InMail” message to someone you found through search. In this case, the recipient can see you searched for their name or profile.
Below we will explore LinkedIn’s search privacy settings in more detail, including:
- Who can see your searches by default
- When your searches are visible to others
- How to further limit search visibility
- Information others can glean from your searches
Understanding these details will help you search LinkedIn securely and optimize your privacy.
Who Can See Your Searches by Default
In most cases, your LinkedIn searches are completely private. By default, LinkedIn does not share search history or terms with other members or display this information on your profile.
The only person that can view your complete LinkedIn search history is you when logged into your account. You can revisit past searches under the “Search History” section on LinkedIn.
Anonymous visitors, recruiters, connections, and other LinkedIn members cannot see what profiles or keywords you have searched for. This applies when searching for people, companies, groups, jobs, content, and other listings on the platform.
In summary, your search activity is kept confidential within your account. LinkedIn’s default privacy settings limit search visibility to just you as the searcher.
When Your Searches Are Visible
There is one main instance where your LinkedIn searches become visible to others:
- When you message someone directly after viewing their profile.
LinkedIn has a paid feature called InMail that allows you to send private messages to any member, whether they are in your connections network or not.
If you search for a person’s name or profile and then proceed to send them an InMail message, they will be notified that you visited their profile. Essentially, the InMail ties your search activity to your message.
For example:
- Tim searches for Jane Smith on LinkedIn.
- Tim views Jane’s profile and then sends her an InMail introducing himself.
- Jane receives the message and a notification that Tim recently viewed her profile.
This search visibility exists to provide context on who is reaching out and prevent unwanted solicitations.
Besides this InMail scenario, your searches remain private to you. LinkedIn does not publish search history or terms anywhere else on their platform.
Limiting Search Visibility
If you want to further limit search visibility, there are steps you can take:
Use anonymous browsing
LinkedIn allows you to browse publicly in an anonymous or “private” mode. Other members will not be notified you visited their profile. However, anonymous browsing also limits some platform functionality.
Avoid connecting searches to InMails
Don’t message someone right after searching for them. Wait some time before reaching out or connect in a different way.
Remove specific searches from your history
Under “Search History”, you can delete individual searches. This prevents anyone (including you) from revisiting that search later.
Turn off search history entirely
In your account settings, you can toggle off the “Search History” feature to avoid storing searches at all. However, this limits your ability to revisit previous searches.
Using one or more of these options will limit search visibility from others and remove search footprints. Keep in mind some functionality tradeoffs based on which approach you take.
Information Still Visible from Searches
Although your specific search keywords and history are private, some information remains visible to others.
Public profiles viewed
When you visit a public profile on LinkedIn without anonymous browsing enabled, the profile owner will see you in their visitor list. So your interest in that person or company is evident even without search terms.
Content interactions
Interacting with posts, articles, and other public content may display that activity to your network and the content creator. So indirect signals about your interests are still present based on what you engage with.
Targeted ads
LinkedIn uses searches to customize the advertising you see across their platform and partner sites. So you may receive targeted ads related to your searches even if the terms themselves remain private.
InMail source
As mentioned, InMail recipients can see you visited their profile prior to messaging. So someone may guess you arrived at their profile through a search even if terms aren’t shown.
In essence, although exact searches are private, LinkedIn still uses that activity to optimize the experience and recommendations you receive elsewhere on their platform. Keep this in mind even when search history itself stays hidden.
Conclusion
Your LinkedIn search activity and terms are kept private from others by default. The only exception is when messaging someone directly after viewing their profile via search.
To further limit visibility, use anonymous browsing, avoid tying searches to messages, remove individual history items, or disable search history entirely. However, these options also restrict platform functionality.
While exact searches are confidential, LinkedIn still personalizes your experience based on search behavior. So although search terms stay hidden, your actions still shape the ads, content, and recommendations you see.
Understanding LinkedIn’s search privacy settings empowers you to search comfortably while optimizing visibility. With the right configuration, you can unlock the platform’s search potential without compromising privacy.
Search Type | Visible To |
---|---|
Looking at public profiles | Profile owner and site visitors |
Searching for people, jobs, content | Only you |
Visiting someone’s profile then messaging them | Message recipient |
Interacting with public posts and articles | Your network and content creator |
This summarizes who can see different types of LinkedIn search activities. In most cases, your search history remains fully private.