LinkedIn is a popular social media platform used primarily for professional networking and career development. With over 740 million members worldwide, LinkedIn has become an invaluable tool for establishing connections, promoting businesses, and recruiting talent.
While LinkedIn offers many helpful features for furthering careers and expanding networks, some users have concerns about how much of their personal activity on the platform is visible to others. One common question is whether your browsing history on LinkedIn can be seen by other users.
Can other LinkedIn members see your entire browsing history?
The short answer is no. LinkedIn does not make your full browsing history visible to other members of the platform. Some basic browsing information may be visible under certain circumstances, but most of your browsing activity remains private.
LinkedIn does not provide a centralized feed or list of all the profiles and pages you have visited. Other members cannot look up a comprehensive history of everything you have clicked on or viewed while using LinkedIn.
What browsing information is public?
While your full browsing history is not exposed, some limited information about your LinkedIn browsing may visible in certain contexts:
- Profile views – If you view someone’s profile, that person will be able to see that you viewed their profile. They will see when you viewed it and how many times. This also works the other way – you can see a list of who has viewed your profile.
- Searching profiles – If you visit someone’s profile from search results, they may be informed that you found them through search. However, they will not see the actual search terms you used.
- Company pages – If you visit a LinkedIn Company page, employees of that company may be able to see that you visited the page. This allows them to track engagement with the company profile.
- Advertisements – If you click on a sponsored advertisement, the advertiser can see that click activity. However, they do not receive any other browsing information.
So in summary, the browsing information that is visible to others is limited to direct engagement with their profile or company page. Your wider browsing activity remains private.
Browsing activity that remains private:
Here are some examples of browsing that is not visible to other LinkedIn members:
- Viewing other connections’ profiles
- Looking through groups and discussions
- Checking out jobs listings
- Clicking on news articles and posts
- Viewing people’s profiles from Groups or Jobs pages
- Visiting company pages as an anonymous user
This private browsing data remains between you and LinkedIn only. So you can comfortably research people, companies, and opportunities without your activity being tracked.
Does LinkedIn use your browsing data internally?
Yes, LinkedIn does monitor and utilize your browsing behavior internally to improve their platform and serve you more relevant content and advertisements. But they do not share this data with other members.
Some ways LinkedIn uses your private browsing activity include:
- Improving their feed algorithm – The more content you engage with, the better job LinkedIn can do at showing you relevant feed posts.
- Targeting advertisements – Just like other platforms, LinkedIn relies on browsing data to determine which ads would be most effective to serve you.
- Making profile suggestions – LinkedIn looks at profile views and searches to recommend new connections.
- Informing premium analytics – Paid account holders can get analytics on profile view sources and engagement.
So LinkedIn does rely on accumulating and analyzing user browsing patterns. But this data usage remains internal and is not shared with regular members.
Does browsing on private mode hide your activity?
Using LinkedIn’s private browsing mode, also known as “Incognito Mode” on desktop or “Secret Mode” on mobile, does not fully hide your browsing activity on the platform.
Incognito and Secret Modes mainly prevent browsing history from being stored locally on your own device. But it does not stop LinkedIn from tracking and recording your activity on their servers.
So browsing in private mode only limits the persistence of your browsing history locally. LinkedIn will still have a record of pages visited, profiles viewed, and content interactions.
That said, private browsing does prevent some information being stored locally that could identify your activity later. For example, cookies linking you to a profile view will not be retained after a Incognito/Secret session closes. So any public browsing data will not be directly attributable to you specifically in the long term.
Limitations of LinkedIn’s private browsing modes:
- Does not prevent LinkedIn from tracking browsing during the session
- Does not stop profiles and pages from registering a view from your account
- Does not hide your activity from advertisers during the session
- Does not alter how your data is used internally by LinkedIn’s algorithms
- Only limits local browsing history retention after session closes
Can you request your complete LinkedIn browsing data?
Since LinkedIn retains a full record of your browsing history internally for analytical purposes, you may be wondering if you can access this information.
While LinkedIn does provide ways to download your general account data, your full browsing history data is not included in these downloads.
Under LinkedIn settings, you can request an archive your personal account data, including profile info, connections, messages, interests, and other activity. However, your full browsing history is excluded. Only specific engagement such as profile views may be included.
There is no way for regular LinkedIn members to request or access their complete browsing history and clickstream data held internally. This data is considered proprietary and only used by LinkedIn for analytics.
What browsing data can you download:
- Your profile views and visitor sources
- Ads you’ve clicked or hidden
- Direct messages
- Groups and Companies you follow or visit
- Posts and content you’ve created
What browsing data you can’t download:
- Full history of profiles/pages visited
- Complete search history
- Personalized feed engagement history
- Complete ad view and click history
- Algorithmic recommendations viewed
Can someone’s LinkedIn browsing expose them?
Since LinkedIn’s browsing history is mostly private, there is limited opportunity for embarrassment or exposure based on your browsing activity.
The main way browsing could potentially expose you is through profile views. If you repeatedly visit someone’s profile, whether an old colleague, a celebrity, or an unrequited crush, they will be able to see your repeated profile views.
While they won’t have context on why you visited, repeated profile views could raise questions or reveal an interest of sorts. But overall, there is minimal risk of browsing exposure due to LinkedIn’s privacy controls.
As the saying goes, “you can look but you can’t touch”. LinkedIn browsing allows discreet looking with minimal touching. So you can comfortably research people and companies without concern of being exposed.
Risks of LinkedIn browsing exposure:
- Viewing specific people’s profiles frequently may be noticeable
- Visiting a company page when anonymous browsing is disabled
- Engaging with ads could inform advertiser targeting
Low risks of browsing exposure:
- General profile browsing is not visible
- Your searches and search terms are not visible
- Group activity and discussions are anonymous
- News and interest browsing is not tracked
- Job browsing is private
Best practices for browsing discretion
If you want to maintain your LinkedIn browsing discretion, here are some tips:
- Use private browsing when viewing sensitive profiles or companies
- Research people, jobs, or companies anonymously if possible
- Avoid clicking on ads unless you want to reveal your interests
- Be aware that repeated profile views of the same person will be visible
- Turn off data usage settings if you want to limit internal analytics
With good browsing habits, you can keep your LinkedIn activity private without fear of overexposure. Moderation is key for discretion.
Settings for more private browsing:
You can adjust some LinkedIn settings for increased privacy:
- Turn off ad personalization in Settings & Privacy
- Disable personalized recommendations under Account Preferences
- Toggle off data usage under Tracking Preferences
- Use Secret Mode on mobile to limit local cookies/history
Habits for discreet browsing:
- Vary your profile visits rather than repeat views of the same people
- Use different linked devices if needed for privacy
- Browse anonymously when possible without logging in
- Be cautious when engaging with ads and partners
- Periodically clear local browser history and cookies
Conclusion
In summary, your full LinkedIn browsing history is not available to others on the platform. While some limited activity like profile views is visible, most of your browsing behavior remains private to you.
LinkedIn leverages your browsing internally to improve their algorithms and targeting, but does not expose this data. Overall there is minimal risk of embarrassment or exposure based on having a record of your LinkedIn activity.
With the right settings and habits, you can comfortably research people, companies, jobs and content without your browsing being tracked. LinkedIn’s privacy settings give you discretion to look around while maintaining your professional reputation.
