LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform with over 700 million members. As a popular social media site, LinkedIn provides opportunities for identity theft and fraud through hacking, phishing, and social engineering. While LinkedIn has security measures in place, members should be vigilant about protecting personal information.
How can someone steal an identity from LinkedIn?
There are a few ways identity theft can occur through LinkedIn:
- Hacking LinkedIn accounts – Criminals can hack into LinkedIn accounts by guessing passwords, through phishing, or exploiting vulnerabilities in LinkedIn’s security. Once in, they have access to personal information.
- Phishing scams – Phishing uses fake LinkedIn login pages or messages to trick users into revealing account credentials. Criminals use these details to access accounts.
- Creating fake LinkedIn profiles – Scammers create profiles using someone else’s name, photos, and details. They use them to connect to contacts, spread malware, and steal identities.
- Social engineering – Criminals socially engineer LinkedIn connections to reveal personal details through messaging. This information helps them steal identities.
- Malware and spyware – Malicious software is used to infect devices and secretly harvest information entered into LinkedIn. Keyloggers capture passwords.
Once identity thieves access an account or personal information, they can exploit it in various ways:
- Access private data – Email addresses, phone numbers,birthdates, addresses of your connections.
- Use profile information – Name, photo, employment details used for fraudulent purposes.
- Company impersonation – Pose as an employee to access corporate data, accounts, networks.
- Spread malware – Infect connections with malware by sending links or attachments.
- Access other sites – Use credentials to breach LinkedIn connections’ accounts on other platforms.
- Financial fraud – Apply for credit cards, loans, or divert payments using stolen information.
What personal information can be seen on my LinkedIn profile?
LinkedIn allows members to showcase their professional brand to the world. As a result, profiles often contain a wealth of identity data. Here are some examples of personal information displayed on LinkedIn profiles:
- Full name
- Profile photo
- Location information such as city, state, and country
- Current and past job titles and company names
- Education history including schools, degrees, and graduation dates
- Skills and expertise
- Accomplishments and awards
- Volunteer work and causes
- Email address
- Phone numbers
- Links to personal websites and portfolios
- Birthdate (month and day visible to connections by default)
In addition, many members reveal further personal details within their profile summaries, job descriptions, education descriptions, skills sections, and project examples. This could include travel locations, conferences attended, clients and partners worked with, publications, patents, certifications, and more.
How can I check what personal information is visible on my LinkedIn profile?
To check what personal data is publicly viewable on your LinkedIn profile, follow these steps:
- Go to your profile page
- Click “View profile” to see your public profile as other members see it. Alternatively, you can open your profile page in a private browser window.
- Review all sections of your profile and take note of any personal information displayed, such as:
- Name
- Photo
- Location
- Headline and tagline
- Current and past jobs
- Education
- Contact info
- Skills
- Accomplishments
- Recommendations
- About summary
- Mouse over your name and icon to see what pops up. This shows what others see when they hover over your name.
- Turn on your activity broadcast under settings. Then view your profile to see if any recent activity is showing.
Check carefully as it’s easy to overlook some personal details on your profile. Ensure sensitive information like phone numbers, birthdate, and addresses are not visible.
How can I control what personal information is visible on my LinkedIn profile?
LinkedIn provides privacy settings and controls to manage what personal information is visible on your profile:
- Configure profile visibility – Set your profile to public, visible only to connections, or fully private.
- Show/hide name and photo – Control if your name and profile photo appear in search results or are visible only to connections.
- Select what’s shared in pop-up – Pick what shows up when someone hovers over your name and photo.
- Show activity broadcasts – Turn sharing of recent activity to connections on or off.
- Show birthdate – Display just month and day, hide your birth year, or show nothing.
- Show contact info – Choose whether to display your contact details like email, phone, websites, and addresses.
- Show education and employment history – Toggle visibility of education and job details on your profile.
- Select profile sections to show – Determine which sections like skills, accomplishments, and volunteering appear.
- Limit viewing of connections – Restrict who can see your connections list to only your connections.
Additionally, review content published within updates, articles, posts, and multimedia to ensure no sensitive personal information is revealed.
What privacy settings does LinkedIn offer?
LinkedIn provides members with a range of privacy settings and controls to manage personal information visibility and account security:
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Profile visibility | Set profile visibility to public, connections only, or fully private |
| Name and photo visibility | Manage if name and photo appear in search results or to connections only |
| Activity broadcasts | Turn sharing of recent profile activity history to connections on or off |
| Birthdate visibility | Show month and day, hide birth year, or hide date completely |
| Contact information | Control which contact details are displayed such as email, phone number, address |
| Education and employment | Manage visibility of education history and employment details |
| Profile section visibility | Select which profile sections are displayed such as skills, accomplishments, volunteering |
| Connections list visibility | Restrict full connections list viewing to connections only |
| Two-step verification | Add an extra login step via text message code or authentication app |
| Login alerts | Get notified when someone logs into your account from a new device |
These settings allow members to control sharing of personal information, manage profile visibility, and boost account security.
What steps can I take to protect my identity and data on LinkedIn?
Here are some key tips to help safeguard your identity and personal information on LinkedIn:
- Review your privacy settings regularly and customize visibility of your details.
- Be selective about what information you share publicly on your profile and activity.
- Never share your LinkedIn password. Use strong unique passwords.
- Turn on two-factor authentication for extra login security.
- Be wary of unsolicited messages asking for personal information.
- Don’t download attachments or click links in suspicious messages.
- Hover over profile names and URLs to check legitimacy before clicking.
- Use up-to-date antivirus software on your devices.
- Limit sharing of birthdates, contact info, and addresses which facilitate identity theft.
- Review your profile and activity feed from other people’s viewpoints.
- Monitor your LinkedIn activity to detect unauthorized access attempts.
What should I do if I suspect identity theft on LinkedIn?
If you notice any suspicious activity that points to potential identity theft through your LinkedIn account, here are important steps to take:
- Reset your LinkedIn password immediately and update passwords on any other accounts that used the same credentials.
- Review recent activity on your LinkedIn account for unauthorized access red flags.
- Enable two-factor authentication for strengthened account security.
- Check your profile settings and customize visibility to only share personal data with trusted connections.
- Scan devices you use LinkedIn on for malware, spyware, and keylogging software.
- Report fake LinkedIn profiles impersonating you or using your information.
- Alert connections about potential scams from profiles posing as you.
- Place fraud alerts and monitor your credit reports with bureaus to detect any suspicious activities.
- File a complaint with the FTC regarding the identity theft incident.
- Contact LinkedIn support to investigate any compromised accounts.
Addressing identity theft quickly can help minimize damages from fraud. Notify relevant authorities, secure accounts, and carefully monitor personal information if you suspect your identity is misused on LinkedIn.
Conclusion
While LinkedIn provides value in networking and career opportunities, it also carries privacy and fraud risks. Members should be vigilant in what personal information they share publicly and utilize tools like visibility settings, login alerts, and two-factor authentication. Avoiding scams, using strong passwords, monitoring your profile, and reporting suspicious activities can also help users protect their identities on LinkedIn against theft and misuse.
