LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform, with over 810 million members worldwide as of 2021. With so many people using LinkedIn to connect, network, and search for jobs or employees, an important question arises – can you see who views your LinkedIn profile?
The short answer
The short answer is no, you cannot see exactly who views your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn does not provide users with data on who specifically views their profile page. This is done to protect the privacy of LinkedIn members.
LinkedIn profile views data
While you can’t see exactly who looked at your profile, LinkedIn does provide users with some data around profile views:
- You can see the total number of times your profile has been viewed in the last 90 days.
- You can see a demographic breakdown of who has viewed your profile – by location, industry, job function, etc.
- You can see when your profile appears in search results and gets viewed.
- Paid LinkedIn members can see up to 5 profiles that viewed theirs in the past week.
So in summary, LinkedIn gives you aggregated data on who viewed your profile – but not the names or identities of individual members.
Who can see your LinkedIn profile
In general, your LinkedIn profile can be seen by all LinkedIn members depending on your account settings. When someone views your profile, it does not notify you or the viewer – it’s anonymous by default.
There are three main settings that control who can view your LinkedIn profile:
- Public profile – Fully public profiles can be viewed by anyone on the internet, whether they have a LinkedIn account or not.
- Private profile – For private profiles, only your name and limited info is visible to non-connections.
- Profile visibility to members outside your network – This controls if all LinkedIn members can view your full profile, or only your 1st-degree connections.
So in summary, the main things controlling your LinkedIn profile visibility are your account type (free or premium), profile privacy settings, and network visibility settings.
Who can see that you viewed their LinkedIn profile?
Similar to profile views, LinkedIn does not show other members exactly who views their profile. However, there are a few ways someone can see or tell if you viewed their profile:
- If you interact with their profile in any way, like liking or commenting on a post, they will see that activity.
- Paid Sales Navigator members can see the last 5 people who viewed their profile.
- LinkedIn shows users anonymized analytics on who viewed their profile – by location, industry, etc.
- Some browsers or apps may prefetch LinkedIn pages in the background, logging a profile view even if unintended.
So in summary, while your individual profile views are anonymous, there are some scenarios where a user might be able to tell you viewed their profile.
How to see who viewed your profile on LinkedIn
As mentioned previously, there is no direct way to see exactly who viewed your LinkedIn profile. However, there are some paid services and workarounds that claim to let you see your profile visitors:
- LinkedIn Recruiter – LinkedIn’s recruiting platform shows recruiters the names of members who viewed jobs or profiles.
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator – Paid users can see the last 5 profiles that viewed theirs.
- Third-party browser extensions – Some browser extensions like “Who Viewed My LinkedIn Profile” claims to show profile visitors.
- Premium 3rd party services – Sites like Seen.co and RocketReach say they reveal LinkedIn profile viewers for a fee.
However, many of these services likely violate LinkedIn’s terms of service. They may rely on techniques like tracking cookies, proxies, or capturing login credentials – which LinkedIn forbids. Use at your own risk.
Ethical concerns around viewing LinkedIn profiles
While there are services that claim to show you exactly who viewed your LinkedIn profile, using them raises some ethical concerns:
- Breaching the privacy expectations of LinkedIn members.
- “Stalking” or monitoring individuals without consent.
- Potentially violating LinkedIn’s terms of service.
- Enabling harassment, discrimination, or other unwanted attention.
For these reasons, LinkedIn intentionally makes profile views anonymous and two-way by default. Obtaining data on profile viewers without permission is unethical in most cases.
Best practices for ethical profile viewing
Instead of using questionable third-party services, you can engage with LinkedIn profiles ethically by:
- Respecting the privacy and preferences of other members.
- Viewing profiles only when you have a legitimate interest, like researching a job candidate.
- Limiting repeated views of the same profile when possible.
- Disclosing your identity and intent if reaching out to a member.
- Reporting suspicious activity or harassment to LinkedIn.
Following these best practices helps build trust and uphold the principles of professional networking.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can LinkedIn see who views your profile?
No, LinkedIn cannot see exactly who views your profile. Profile views are anonymous by default. However, they do provide account owners with analytics about who viewed them – by location, industry, etc.
Does LinkedIn notify someone if you look at their profile?
No, LinkedIn does not proactively notify members when someone views their profile. It’s completely anonymous unless the viewer interacts in some way, like liking a post.
Who can see your LinkedIn profile?
By default, your public LinkedIn profile can be seen by all LinkedIn members and anyone on the internet. Adjusting your profile visibility and account settings restricts access to certain groups or connections only.
Can LinkedIn tell if you looked at someone’s profile anonymously?
No, individual anonymous profile views are not logged or detectable by LinkedIn. However, any direct engagement with a profile is visible. And paid Sales Navigator accounts can see their last 5 profile visitors.
Is it unethical to see who viewed your LinkedIn profile?
In most cases, yes – trying to identify anonymous LinkedIn profile visitors is unethical. It breaches privacy expectations, enables harassment, and often violates LinkedIn’s terms.
Conclusion
In summary, it is not possible to see exactly who views your LinkedIn profile. While LinkedIn provides some analytics around profile views, individual identities remain anonymous. Attempting to unmask anonymous viewers raises ethical concerns in most cases. If you need to identify LinkedIn profile viewers, it’s best to disclose your intent and obtain consent where possible.