LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 810 million members worldwide. With so many professionals connecting and engaging on the platform, a common question people have is: can someone see if you viewed their LinkedIn profile?
The Short Answer
In most cases, no – people cannot see if you specifically view their LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn does not notify users about who views their profile. The only exception is if you click on “See all viewers” under “Who’s viewed your profile?” on your own homepage. This shows you a limited list of anonymous LinkedIn members who have recently viewed your profile. So you can see that someone viewed your profile, but you won’t know who unless they told you directly.
LinkedIn Profile Views
When you view someone’s profile on LinkedIn, they do not get notified or receive any indication that you viewed their profile. LinkedIn designed their platform this way to encourage viewing profiles without worrying about other people knowing. This differs from other social networks like Facebook where you can enable notifications to see who viewed your profile.
The one insight into profile views that LinkedIn does provide is the number of times your own profile has been viewed over the past 90 days. You can find this under the “See all viewers” link on your homepage. This shows you how many people have viewed your profile, but does not reveal who those viewers are.
Anonymous Profile Views
The profile view count is displayed anonymously to protect privacy. LinkedIn specifically states in their privacy policy: “Your identity is not revealed to the LinkedIn member whose profile you viewed, nor is the identity of the LinkedIn member who viewed your profile revealed to you.”
The only name you will see is your own in the list of people who have viewed your profile. So if John and Jane viewed your LinkedIn profile, you will see:
- John
- Jane
- You
But John and Jane will just see “anonymous” where your name is displayed. This keeps all profile viewing completely anonymous.
Who Can See Your LinkedIn Profile Views?
Since LinkedIn profiles are public, anyone can see your profile views if they have the direct link to your “See all viewers” page. This page displays the last 90 days of profile views and is accessible via a URL that includes your name and profile ID number.
For example, if your LinkedIn profile URL is: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnsmith
The “See all viewers” page would be: https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=123456789&authType=name&authToken=abcd&trk=prof-0-viewers-widget
Where “123456789” is your unique profile ID and “abcd” is an authentication code. Anyone with this link could see the number of profile views displayed, but not WHO viewed your profile.
Who Can’t See Your Profile Views?
While anyone can see your overall profile view count if they have the direct link, there are certain things most LinkedIn members cannot see related to your profile views:
- They cannot see who specifically viewed your profile
- They cannot access the “See all viewers” link themselves
- They will not receive notifications when you view their own profile
Unless you provide the direct link to your “See all viewers” page, the identity of who viewed your profile remains anonymous to other LinkedIn members.
Do Paid LinkedIn Accounts Get More Views Insights?
LinkedIn Premium accounts (paid subscriptions) do provide more analytics into profile views, but still do not show who specifically viewed your profile. Here are the key viewing insights you get as a Premium subscriber:
- See the total number of profile views per post
- See top viewers by industry and location
- See viewers by seniority level
- Filter profile views by date range
This provides helpful viewing data to gauge engagement and understand your audience better. But the names of individual viewers remain anonymous across both free and paid LinkedIn accounts.
Do Recruiters See Who Views Profiles?
LinkedIn Recruiters who use LinkedIn Recruiter or Recruiting software can see limited information on who viewed their profiles and the profiles of potential prospects. This includes:
- If someone they sent an InMail message to views their profile
- When one of their prospects views their profile
- When prospects view a job posting they are hiring for
However, recruiters cannot see if a prospect views a fellow recruiter’s profile or other contacts. These special viewing insights are limited to only the recruiter’s own profile and job postings.
| User Type | Can See Who Views Your Profile |
|---|---|
| Standard User | No |
| Premium User | No |
| Recruiter | Limited Insights on Own Profile |
How to Disable Profile View Notifications
Since LinkedIn does not notify you when someone views your profile, there are no settings to adjust. The platform is designed to keep profile viewing private and anonymous for all members by default.
Some special cases like Recruiters may see limited viewing insights as outlined above. But there are no account settings regular members can change related to profile view notifications, because regular LinkedIn members cannot see who specifically is looking at their profile at all.
Managing Your Own Profile Views
If you want to be more private on LinkedIn and limit views of your own profile, here are a few options:
- Change your profile to private mode – this limits visibility to only your direct connections
- Block specific members from viewing your profile
- Change viewer visibility in your privacy settings
But by default, LinkedIn profiles are public, so anyone on the internet can view profiles and the account owner will not be notified of these views.
Mistaking Page Visits for Profile Views
One common misconception is that someone “visiting” your LinkedIn profile page means they necessarily viewed your full profile. But a page visit simply means someone loaded your profile URL – it does not definitively mean they scrolled through or read your profile.
Third-party site analytics tools like Google Analytics can register LinkedIn page visits, but treat this data carefully. The name “LinkedIn profile view” implies seeing the full profile, when it may have just been a URL click or load.
Notification Workarounds
While LinkedIn itself does not notify you of profile views, some workarounds would be:
- Asking connections to let you know if/when they view your profile
- Using a LinkedIn browser extension to alert you of certain page visits
- Integrating LinkedIn data with an external analytics tool
However, these would likely capture all profile loads, not full profile views. And any external tools would violate LinkedIn’s terms of service if used for monitoring views. Proceed with caution if attempting to engineer notification workarounds.
LINKEDIN VIEWS: KEY TAKEAWAYS
To summarize the key points on LinkedIn profile viewing:
- LinkedIn does not notify you who views your profile
- You can see the number of profile views in past 90 days
- Premium accounts provide more viewing analytics, but no individual names
- Recruiters see limited insights on own profile and job posting views
- Profile viewing on LinkedIn is designed to be anonymous
- Page visits don’t necessarily mean full profile views
So you can rest assured that your professional network connections, recruiters, and prospective employers can view your LinkedIn profile without you knowing. Unless they directly tell you, the identity of who viewed your profile remains completely anonymous.
Conclusion
LinkedIn operates differently than other social networks when it comes to profile viewing privacy. Rather than notifying you whenever someone looks at your profile, they keep things anonymous and private by default. This allows for open viewing and networking without worrying about who specifically may be looking at your profile.
The only limited exception is that recruiters can see some insights into profile viewing activity that relates specifically to their own account. But the vast majority of LinkedIn members cannot see who has viewed their profile, which enables productive business networking and recruitment without unnecessary privacy concerns.
