January 15, 2011
Anonymity! Remember that? It’s quite hard to achieve any level of anonymity or privacy in this Googley world, but we can try. LinkedIn does allow for quite a bit of privacy if you know where to find it!
1. Don’t use your full name and turn off your public profile.
Go to Edit your profile and click the edit link next to your name. Underneath the Former/Maiden name field is where you can toggle how you want your name displayed. Notice you can either have it displayed in full or with just your first name and last initial.
From your Edit Profile screen, click the edit button after your Public Profile link and turn off your Public Profile. Now, no one can see your profile!
2. Turn off your Member Feed
In the upper right hand part of your screen is where you access your LinkedIn Settings. Look for Member Feed Visibility. Once there, make sure your “My member feed is visible to…” is listed as Nobody (don’t display my member feed). This means your personal feed will not broadcast your Network Updates from actions you performed on LinkedIn to your connections.
3. Remove all your extra email addresses
Back in settings, find Email addresses and delete your extra email addresses. The more email addresses you have, the more likely people will find you when they upload their contact lists to LinkedIn.
4. Don’t let people know you were browsing their profiles
Get yourself back in settings and look for: Profile Views. This is where you can choose how you want your information to appear after viewing other people’s LinkedIn profiles. Now it’s worth mentioning that by making yourself invisible, you are unable to see those who viewed YOUR profile.
5. Stop alerting people of your Profile and Status Updates
Back in settings, look for Profile and Status Updates. This is where you can turn off the publishing of your profile updates, recommendations and companies you follow as well as notifying your connections of your status updates.
And lastly, if you don’t want people browsing YOUR connections list, turn it off by going to settings and clicking on Connections Browse.
LinkedIn works best when you open yourself up to it. I can understand wanting to retain some privacy but you are also possibly missing opportunities. Determine what is best for you and go down that path! I wish you luck!
Access my LinkedIn Headline Generator app to boost your brand and achieve higher placement in LinkedIn Search results. Your profile will get more views and you will collide with amazing opportunities! All it takes is a couple of clicks and in seconds you have an engaging, professional LinkedIn Headline that impresses. It's fast, easy, and completely free.
Instant Access
Input your search keywords and press Enter.
I have dropped to ‘Anonymous’ after I viewed some profiles- now I have deleted the account- will they still be able to tell? Help!!
Hi Jane, I will contact you to get more information
I have the same question – I deleted my account. Will my name disappear in the ‘see who’s viewed your profile’ search?
I have a different situation: a client insists that they never created a LinkedIn profile yet they have one that appears in search engine results with a link like…
https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=12345678
Not sure how this could happen (other than your contacts uploading your information upon their LinkedIn registration).
The question is: how do you contact LinkedIn to request that this information be removed seeing as you don’t have an account with them?
Your insight is much appreciated!
In number 4 above, you state, “Now it’s worth mentioning that by making yourself invisible, you are unable to see those who viewed YOUR profile.” Is this always the case? I am currently set as anonymous; however, I see see 6 profiles of people who viewed me in the last 6 months.
Hi Karen! No… this is not always the case. If you are a paying member of LinkedIn, you can view the profile stats screen
I continually see that an undesirable (convicted felon) continues to view my profile despite the fact that they are NOT a connection and my public profile is limited. How can I prevent them from doing this?
Hi John!
Unfortunately LinkedIn doesn’t offer the ability to block specific people. The only things you can do is ensure they are not a direct connection and limit your public profile… which are things you have already done successfully. Other than disconnecting completely from LinkedIn, have you considered reporting the person to LinkedIn? If this felon is harassing you AND you have a retraining order, you can report them to LinkedIn’s Privacy group.
Recently, people have created proxy accounts to view my profile.I have noticed it from the ‘People who viewed your profile also viewed” listings. I have now changed my account settings to anonymous.I do not want my profile to be viewed by them again, but I have a doubt-if I change my LinkedIn user name would my profile with the changed name be still visible to those who had viewed it earlier using dummy accounts? I know that one’s own profile viewing is not counted as a profile view.Now if several people are accessing through those created accounts would my changed profile be noticed?
If I’ve viewed LinkedIn profiles in the Anonymous setting and then later change the setting to show my name & heading, does the history of those profile views change? Will the profile owners still me me as Anonymous or with my name?
Thx
Thanks for the help and peace of mind
My settings currently have me totally Anonymous when I view others’ profiles. I realize, however, I cannot see who has viewed MY profile. That said…if I change my setting to show my name when viewing a profile, is it retroactive or only prospective? And if you change your setting back and forth? Example, I am Anonymous now. I change my setting today. Will the owners of the profiles I viewed before today know I was there? Then, if I change back to Anonymous tomorrow, will the owners of the profiles I viewed today still see that I was there? Just want to understand before I change ANYTHING.
When i do search in google with my name — the first thing appears is my Linkedin profile …So can you tell me how to make it unsearchable ….if there no such option i will delte my profile please let me know if you guys know
I changed my settings to ‘Anonymous’ after I viewed some profiles- will the people whose profiles I viewed show my name?
Hi,
For my research I need anonymity so that my interviewees don’t know the company I currently work for and have worked for in the past. You stated I need to do this by making my public profile visible to nobody. However, that only removes me from search on Google, Yahoo! and other search engines while people on LinkedIn who search my name will find me and see the company I work for.
This question is absolutely crucial to my research, please help!
AJ
Wow – a nearly 3 year old article about LinkedIn that is rather accurate. Go figure, LinkedIn has not changed these features so much.
I still have this question – if you want to be this anonymous, why would you create a LinkedIn Profile to begin with? I can see lots of stalking purposes, but this sort of defeats the whole purpose of Social Networking. IMHO.
Thanks for sharing and then resharing this old article.
Hello
I have a slightly unusual situation – my ex partner stalked me for 2 years and is now in prision- due to his actions I have not been on any social media for 18 months and have also changed my name- now naturally I am keen to make sure all of my efforts to hide myself from any further stalking- so I do not put my name, my photo, contact details or employment history online.
However in my job as business development manager Linkedin is a tool that could be very useful as my co workers are finding out- if the above steps are taken especially the first step how much infomation is actually viewable in searches by a member of the public- for instance someone who nows my previous employment history who searches a compnay I used to work for- would my profile come up? In addition how usable is linkedin as a communication tool for making new contacts if my profile is hidden in the above ways?
Thanks
E
A feature such as this is essential while you are doing job hunting! Although linked in has a great job search tool, but sometimes you want to go out of the whole LinkedIn network and hunt for jobs in areas that are outside of the whole referential social networking site.
The more you speak of yourself sometimes can be hurtful in the job hunt process, sometimes you might end up being overqualified for positions.
AT
Oh gosh, just when I think I understand the inner workings of LinkedIn, there’s more to learn. I guess the jury’s still out on the privacy issue………thanks for a great article.
Hi Donna Serdula,
Very mindfully I just go through your informative article “How do I remain anonymous on LinkedIn? The answer in 5 easy steps! As well as my understanding is yes I transformed my settings to- anonymous subsequently I observed particular side view- will the persons whose profiles I observed display my title? Moreover, LinkedIn has a countless job hunt instrument no doubt about it, then occasionally you need to go out of the entire LinkedIn network and search aimed at jobs in zones that are external of the entire referential communal schmoosing place.Special Thanks for great sharing like old is gold.