How to Make LinkedIn Private: The Ultimate Guide

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform, with over 722 million users globally. While having a public presence on LinkedIn can help you build your professional brand, there may be times when you want to limit who can view your profile and activity.

Making your LinkedIn private allows you to control your privacy settings and choose who can see your information.

In this comprehensive guide, we will cover everything you need to know about how to make LinkedIn private, from adjusting profile visibility settings to using private mode while browsing.

Overview of Making LinkedIn Private

Here is a quick overview of the main ways you can make LinkedIn more private:

• Adjust profile visibility settings to limit who can view your profile
• Use private mode while browsing LinkedIn to keep your visits private
• Make connections, updates, groups, and job-seeking activities private
• Remove personal info like birthdays, education, interests, etc.
• Block specific members from seeing your profile
• Use anonymous mode when viewing other profiles

Now let’s dive into each of these options in more detail.

Also read: How to Hide Your LinkedIn Profile

Making Your LinkedIn Profile Private

Your LinkedIn profile visibility controls who can see your basic profile information, such as your photo, work experience, education, skills, and more. By default, your profile is visible to all LinkedIn members.

Here’s how to adjust your profile visibility settings on desktop and mobile:

On Desktop:

• Go to your profile and click the “me” button

• Select “Settings and Privacy”.

• Scroll down and click the pencil icon next to “Visibility”

• Under “Select who can see your profile” choose from:
  • Your connections only
  • Anyone signed into LinkedIn
  • Everyone on the internet
  • Individual options for your name, photo, current positions, past positions, education, etc.

• Click Save

On Mobile:

• Tap your profile photo and select “View profile”

• Select Settings.

• Tap “Visibility”

• Click on Arrow beside the Profile viewing option.

• Select how you want your profile to appear.
• Tap “Save”

Setting your profile to visible only to your connections ensures that only people in your network can view your profile. This is the most private option, apart from individually customizing visibility for each profile section.

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Using Private Mode for Anonymous Browsing

LinkedIn’s private mode allows you to browse LinkedIn profiles and posts anonymously. Your name and photo won’t show up as having viewed someone’s profile while in private mode.

To use private mode:

On Desktop:

• Click your profile photo in the top right and select “Private mode”

On Mobile:

• Tap your profile photo
• Tap the 3 lines menu icon
• Select “Private mode”

While in private mode, your name and photo won’t appear to others as having visited their profiles. You can turn private mode off at any time to return to normal browsing.

Making Connections Private

By default, your LinkedIn connections are visible to anyone who views your profile. To make your connections list private:

On Desktop:

1. Go to your profile and click “See all” under the Connections section
2. Click the settings gear icon next to Connections
3. Uncheck the box next to “Show my connections to visitors viewing my full profile”
4. Click Save

On Mobile:

1. Tap your profile photo and select “View profile”
2. Tap “See all” under Connections
3. Tap the 3 dots icon and select “Manage visibility”
4. Toggle off “Your connections are visible”
5. Tap Done

Now only you can see your full connections list. Other members will see a limited number of connections displayed on your profile.

Also read: How to Tag a Company on LinkedIn: The Complete Step-by-Step Guide

Keeping Updates and Activity Private

By default, any articles, posts, comments, and likes you share on LinkedIn are visible to your connections. To limit who sees your activity:

On Desktop:

1. Click the “Me” icon in the top right and select “Settings & Privacy”
2. Click “Privacy” in the left sidebar
3. Under “Profile viewing options”, adjust visibility for activities, articles, posts, and newsletters
4. Under “Other privacy settings”, adjust visibility for likes, comments, shares, recommendations, and more

On Mobile:

1. Tap your profile photo and select “Settings & Privacy”
2. Tap “Privacy”
3. Adjust the visibility toggles for activities, articles, posts, likes, and other items

You can choose for each type of activity whether you want it visible to just you, your connections, or the public.

Making Groups Private

If you create or manage a LinkedIn Group, you can make it private so only members can find and see the group.

On Desktop:

1. Go to your Group and click “Manage” in the top right
2. Click Group settings
3. Under Members & messaging, switch on “Make the group private”
4. Click Save changes

On Mobile:

1. Open your Group and tap the 3 dots icon
2. Select Privacy
3. Toggle on “Make this group private”

When a group is private, it won’t show up in LinkedIn search results or suggestions. Only members you invite can join.

Also read: How to Change Location in LinkedIn: A Step-by-Step Guide

Keeping Job Seeking Private

You may not want employers browsing LinkedIn to know you are actively job searching. Here’s how to keep your job-seeking activity private:

1. Click the Work icon in the top toolbar
2. Click “Settings” next to “Job seeking preferences”
3. Uncheck the boxes next to:
   • Let recruiters know you’re open to opportunities
   • Let LinkedIn members know you’re open to opportunities
4. Click Save

This will prevent the “Open to opportunities” badge from appearing on your profile. Your saved jobs and job applications will also remain private.

Removing Personal Details

To limit the personal details visible on your profile:

• Birthday – Go to your profile, click edit profile, delete your birthday under basic information
• Interests – Go to your profile, click edit profile, delete the interests listed under additional information
• Education – Go to your profile, click edit profile, select the 3 dots next to an education entry and choose Remove from profile
• Places Lived – Go to your profile, click edit profile, delete any places lived listed under location details
• Contact Info – Go to your profile, click edit profile, delete phone number, address, Twitter, or other contact methods

Scrubbing this type of personal info from your profile reduces what’s publicly viewable.

Blocking Specific Members

You can block individual members from viewing your LinkedIn profile:

On Desktop:

1. Go to their profile and click the 3 dots icon
2. Select Block or report > Block

On Mobile:

1. Go to their profile and tap the 3 dots icon
2. Choose Block

Blocking someone prevents them from viewing your profile or posts. You can remove the block at any time.

Using Anonymous Mode

When you view someone’s profile, by default they can see that you visited their profile. To view profiles anonymously:

On Desktop:

1. Install a LinkedIn browser extension like LinkedIn Anonymizer for Chrome
2. This will allow you to toggle anonymous mode on/off as you browse

On Mobile:

1. Enable private mode, as explained earlier
2. profiles viewed while in private mode won’t show you as a visitor

Anonymous mode is useful for discreetly viewing profiles without leaving a footprint.

Also read: How to Find Your LinkedIn ID

Is There a Way to Make LinkedIn Completely Private?

While the above steps allow you to limit the visibility of most of your LinkedIn presence, there is no way currently to make your entire profile completely private or invisible. Some basic information like your name, headline, and a limited view of your connections will still be visible even when profile visibility is tightened.

The best options for a fully private LinkedIn experience are:

• Delete your LinkedIn account – this will remove your profile entirely
• Create an alternative private account using a pseudonym and no identifying details
• Use LinkedIn’s private browsing mode to remain anonymous while viewing the platform

So in summary – adjusting your privacy settings gives you more control over your LinkedIn presence, but some elements will remain publicly viewable to maintain basic functionality.

Frequently Asked Questions

This covers the key questions around making your various LinkedIn presences more private. Adjust your settings to find the right balance of visibility for your needs.

Conclusion

Maintaining your privacy is crucial on a platform as public as LinkedIn with over 700 million users. With the techniques covered in this guide, you can control what parts of your profile and activity are visible and take steps like using private browsing mode to retain anonymity.

Aim to limit access to more sensitive details like connections, job seeking, and personal information. Find a comfort level between professional visibility and unwanted overexposure. And utilize privacy tools like blocking and anonymous viewing when needed.

With the power of LinkedIn privacy settings in your hands, you can focus on cultivating your online presence while keeping your personal life under wraps. Carefully manage what the LinkedIn community can see and engage professionally without compromising privacy.