6 LinkedIn Privacy Settings You Must Manage

LinkedIn is a "safe" social network platform. You are not posting your holiday pics or day-to-day updates on this portal, as a result, there are less chances that your personal life details get hacked or jeopardized. However, that's no reason to ignore the privacy and account settings that LinkedIn has in place.

Just like any other online platform, it's essential that you learn about the various settings and options on LinkedIn. It can help you control how much of your information should be available for everyone to see.

Whether you are new to LinkedIn, or you’ve been on there for years, it’s time to revisit these important privacy settings.

This setting tells you how much of your public profile can people see without logging in to LinkedIn themselves. By default, visitors have access to your entire profile—your picture, summary, current positions, education, website, groups and more. However, if you’re comfortable with this kind of transparency, the full view is recommended.

But if you do not want to share a lot of information, go to the ‘Edit your public profile’ section and simply uncheck the profile features that you don’t want to display publicly.

The Public Profile settings section also has a feature similar to Facebook's where you can make changes and view your public profile as others will see it.

(Visibility –> Visibility of Your Profile & Network)

Let’s say you have made a small edit to your profile. Do you want everyone in your network – or your manager to know about it? Guess no! That’s why we recommend you uncheck the box in this setting.

This box is particularly important to uncheck if you are looking for a job change. Your current employer will not know about this activity.

(Visibility –> Visibility of your LinkedIn activity)

One of the most used features of LinkedIn is “Who’s viewed my profile”. It allows you to check out who’s been viewing your LinkedIn profile.  And you’re probably used to seeing this stat appear next to the right-hand side of your profile.

This setting will bring up 3 options:

Your name and headline - this option ensures your full information is available to those who wish to see it.

Private profile characteristics– this option will hide your name and photo but will give visitors an idea of the industry or company you are in, including your job title within that industry. People will not have the option to view your full profile.

Private mode – this option ensures none of your details is shared with the visitor, whatsoever, you will be totally anonymous.

(Privacy & Settings -  Visibility of your profile & networkà Profile viewing options ->Select what others see when you’ve viewed their profile)

In this section of LinkedIn privacy settings, you can decide who can send you message requests, InMails, or Sponsored Message. For personal safety issues - blocking an annoying person or stalker individually remains an option.

(Communications –> Who Can Reach You)

You’ll want to make sure that you have this option ON so that others who have your email address can find and connect with you. So, ensure you are using your correct email address, so that you don’t miss any connection, who is trying to reach you.

(Privacy & Settings àVisibility of your profile & network ----->Profile discovery using email address)

If you are not careful, your connections can click on your total number of connections and see who they are? If you are in a competitive business, and one of your connections suddenly starts working with your competitor, they will be able to see who is in your network. For this reason alone, its recommend that you do not let others view your connections.

(Visibility –> Visibility of Your Profile & Network)

It is important to know how to change your LinkedIn privacy settings.  Going through the steps might seem tedious, however it will ensure that you can confidently use LinkedIn without many concerns.

Now that you know the important settings, open your LinkedIn account and make the relevant changes to your profile, if not done previously. The controls are similar if you're using the LinkedIn mobile app.