LinkedIn is one of the most popular professional social networking sites, with over 740 million members worldwide as of 2021. On LinkedIn, members create profiles to showcase their work experience, education, skills, and accomplishments. One of LinkedIn’s key features is the ability to see who has viewed your profile.
However, some LinkedIn users may wish to view profiles more discreetly. This raises the question – if you view someone’s profile in private or incognito mode, will LinkedIn still show that you viewed their profile?
Does LinkedIn show profile views in private mode?
The short answer is no, LinkedIn will not show if you viewed someone’s profile while in private browsing mode on desktop or mobile. When using private mode, your identity and browsing history are not saved by LinkedIn.
Here are some key points on how private browsing works with LinkedIn:
- On desktop, if you view LinkedIn profiles in a private window (incognito mode in Chrome or private browsing mode in Firefox), LinkedIn will not record that activity in your browsing history or share it with the profile owner.
- Similarly, if you view a profile while using private browsing on your mobile browser or a third-party private browser app, LinkedIn will not keep track of those views.
- The profile owner will not be notified that you viewed their profile. Your identity remains anonymous.
- You can browse as many profiles as you want privately and none of those views will show up in your LinkedIn activity log or the profile owner’s visitor list.
Essentially, private browsing allows you to visit any LinkedIn profile discreetly without leaving a trace. It works the same way as using private browsing with any other website – your activity is not recorded locally or by the website you are visiting.
How does LinkedIn track profile views normally?
To understand why private browsing prevents LinkedIn from recording your profile views, it helps to first understand how LinkedIn normally tracks and shows profile visitors:
- When you view someone’s profile while logged into your LinkedIn account, LinkedIn associates that profile view with your account.
- LinkedIn saves that profile view in your account’s browsing history and activity log.
- The profile owner can see in their Visitor list that your account viewed their profile.
- Your identity and all profile views get recorded for recommendation algorithms.
This is LinkedIn’s standard way of tracking which profiles you look at. However, private browsing prevents this tracking by not saving any history or linking views to your account.
Does the profile viewer see that you looked at their profile?
In a standard LinkedIn session, the profile owner can see some information about who viewed their profile, with some limitations:
- They see only the number of times their profile was viewed in a given period, not individual views.
- Only LinkedIn members who are in the 2nd-degree network get shown (connected to your connections).
- LinkedIn states the viewer’s name and headline, but not their company.
With private browsing, none of your views get recorded at all, so the profile owner has no indication you viewed their profile.
Can you see who viewed your LinkedIn profile?
As the profile owner, you can see who has viewed your LinkedIn profile in your Visitor list with some restrictions:
- You only see people in your network and 2nd-degree connections.
- You see only the name and headline, not the company.
- Private profile views are not shown or identifiable in any way.
So you will not know if someone viewed your profile privately. The only way to do that would be if they told you directly that they had viewed your profile.
Does LinkedIn show when you click on someone’s profile?
Simply clicking or opening someone’s profile does not register as a view in their visitor list. For LinkedIn to count it as a view, you must actually land on their profile page and load the content. Some key points:
- Clicking a name or profile picture does not count as a view unless you load the full profile.
- Opening a profile in a new tab will only count if you actually visit the tab and view the profile.
- Quickly closing a profile before it finishes loading will not count as a view.
So feel free to explore LinkedIn profiles without each click showing up as a view. But spend time viewing the full profile, and LinkedIn will log that view to the profile owner’s visitor list.
Should you view LinkedIn profiles privately?
Here are some pros and cons to consider when deciding whether to view LinkedIn profiles privately:
Pros:
- View profiles discreetly without anyone knowing.
- Avoid LinkedIn tracking that activity or logging it in their algorithms.
- Maintain your privacy and anonymous browsing.
Cons:
- Private browsing has to be enabled each time, less convenient.
- The profile owner won’t know you viewed their profile and can’t reciprocate.
- You lose access to LinkedIn recommendations based on your viewing history.
In general, view profiles privately when you want to remain anonymous and don’t want your activity tracked. Use regular browsing when looking to connect or message people you view.
Tips for private browsing on LinkedIn
Here are some useful tips to keep in mind when viewing LinkedIn profiles in private mode:
- On mobile, use third-party private browser apps or your browser’s built-in private mode.
- On desktop, use a private window or incognito mode in your browser.
- Do not login to your LinkedIn account in the private browsing window.
- You can bookmark profiles in private mode to easily access them later.
- Clear cookies after exiting private browsing to remove any LinkedIn trace.
- Test it out by viewing your own profile – you should not see the view.
Conclusion
Viewing LinkedIn profiles privately using incognito or private mode prevents the site from recording your profile views in any way. The profile owner will not see that you visited their profile, and your identity remains hidden. This gives you full anonymity to browse profiles discreetly. However, private browsing does disable LinkedIn recommendations and profile visitor tracking. Understanding these trade-offs allows you to decide when private browsing is appropriate based on your specific needs.