Does LinkedIn notify anonymous views?

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 722 million users worldwide as of April 2022. On LinkedIn, users can view other profiles anonymously without the viewed profile being notified. This allows people to discretely research jobs, companies, business contacts, and more. However, there has been some confusion around whether LinkedIn actually notifies users if someone views their profile anonymously. Here is a look at what LinkedIn does and does not notify for anonymous profile views.

Does LinkedIn notify profile views?

In general, yes – LinkedIn does notify users when others view their profile. However, there are some important caveats to this:

• LinkedIn only notifies profile views if the viewer is logged into their LinkedIn account. Anonymous profile views, where the viewer is not logged in, are not notified.
• Even for logged in viewers, LinkedIn does not notify every single profile view. It samples a subset of page views to notify as a way to prevent notification overload.
• LinkedIn Premium subscribers get more in-depth analytics on profile views, but even these expanded notifications do not include anonymous profile views where the viewer was not logged in.

So in summary, while LinkedIn does notify profile views in many cases, it explicitly does not notify for anonymous profile views where the viewer is not logged into a LinkedIn account.

What types of LinkedIn notifications are there?

LinkedIn has a few different types of notifications that users can receive:

• Profile view notifications – As mentioned above, these notify when logged in users view your profile. Does not include anonymous views.
• Connection requests – You are notified when another user sends you a connection invitation.
• Messages – Get notified when receiving new messages and comments.
• Mentions – Receive notifications when another user mentions your name or company.
• Group updates – Notifies of new posts and activity in groups you have joined.
• Job updates – Alerts for new job applications and search alerts you have set up.

The common theme is that nearly all LinkedIn notifications require the other user to be logged into their LinkedIn account for any notification to be sent. Anonymous, unauthenticated activity like profile views does not trigger any notifications.

Who can see your LinkedIn profile anonymously?

By default on LinkedIn, your profile and public activity is visible to anyone anonymously – both members and non-members of LinkedIn can view profiles anonymously. Here are some common examples:

• Non-connections can find and view your profile via search engines like Google or Bing.
• Individuals not logged into LinkedIn can directly view your public profile at linkedin.com/in/your-profile.
• Your profile appears anonymously in LinkedIn search results and automated recommendations like “People also viewed.”

Essentially if your profile is set to public, anyone on the internet can discover and view it anonymously without signing into LinkedIn. You will not receive any notification in these cases per LinkedIn’s rules around anonymous activity.

How to see who viewed your LinkedIn profile

As mentioned above, you can only see who viewed your LinkedIn profile if the viewer was logged into their LinkedIn account. Here are the ways to see profile views:

• On your Homepage, there is a “Who’s viewed your profile” section showing some of your recent viewers.
• Click into your notifications icon and select “Views of your post” to see recent viewers.
• Upgrade to LinkedIn Premium to see more profile view analytics like top viewers and their industries.

In all cases, this will only show authenticated viewers who were logged into LinkedIn. Anonymous profile views while logged out will not appear in your profile view analytics.

Pros of LinkedIn’s anonymous viewing

Allowing anonymous profile views has some potential advantages both for viewers and those being viewed:

• Research without revealing identity – Viewers can research jobs, business contacts, and companies without tipping their hand by appearing in notifications.
• Avoids notification overload – LinkedIn limits notifications to avoid bombarding users. Allowing anonymous views helps avoid overwhelming notifications.
• Encourages browsing LinkedIn – Anonymity may encourage more users to browse and search LinkedIn without worrying about notifications.

The anonymity provides a degree of privacy for those dipping their toes in the LinkedIn platform as an observer, researcher, or browser rather than an active participant.

Cons of anonymous LinkedIn viewing

There are also some drawbacks and risks to allowing anonymous profile viewing on LinkedIn:

• Viewed users lack context – Without knowing who anonymously viewed your profile, it removes context around why your profile was viewed.
• Potential privacy violation – Users may feel their privacy or personal data is being invaded by unknown anonymous viewers.
• Recruitment blindspot – Not knowing who viewed your profile anonymously means you could miss knowing when recruiters or companies are looking at your profile.

While anonymity encourages browsing, it also creates a blindspot where users lose insight into who specifically is looking at their profile and why.

Does anonymous browsing work on mobile?

LinkedIn’s anonymous browsing functions the same whether users are on desktop or on mobile apps for iOS and Android. Anyone can view public profiles anonymously whether on mobile or desktop as long as they are not logged into a LinkedIn account.

Some key points about anonymous browsing on mobile:

• Viewers not logged into the LinkedIn app can anonymously view public profiles.
• Logging out of the LinkedIn app enables anonymous browsing without notifications.
• Private browsing/incognito mode on mobile browsers allows anonymous viewing.
• Profile owners will not receive notifications for any anonymous views on mobile.

Mobile apps and mobile browsers work similarly to desktop for anonymous browsing. As long as the viewer is not logged into their LinkedIn account, the profile view will be completely anonymous without any notifications.

Is there a way to tell if someone views your profile anonymously?

There is no way to definitively tell if an individual views your LinkedIn profile anonymously. Some signs that may indicate anonymous views include:

• Seeing traffic to your profile from LinkedIn but with no corresponding notifications.
• Notice views from users or companies you would expect to notify but with no notifications.
• Views spike on your profile but notifications remain steady.

These signals can hint at anonymous viewing, but with LinkedIn specifically excluding anonymous viewers from notifications, there is no surefire way to confirm if or how many times someone viewed your profile anonymously. The viewers remain anonymous by design on LinkedIn’s platform.

Does LinkedIn notify when you download someone’s contact info?

No, downloading someone’s contact info from their LinkedIn profile is another anonymous action that does not trigger notifications. Specifically:

• You can download a LinkedIn profile as a PDF with the contact info included but this does not notify the profile owner.
• Exporting someone’s LinkedIn contact info to an external app or CRM will not send a notification.
• Requests to connect still notify the recipient, but anonymous contact info downloads do not.

Similar to anonymous profile views, LinkedIn maintains the anonymous aspect of downloading contact info. The profile owner will not know their contact info was exported or downloaded as part of anonymous browsing.

Does anonymous LinkedIn use show up on Google?

Your LinkedIn profile visibility on Google depends on your profile privacy settings. Here is how anonymous profile views can impact Google:

• Public profiles show up in Google results for your name. Anonymous clicks on your profile from Google will not notify you.
• Private profiles only show your name and headline. Your full profile remains private and undiscoverable by search engines.
• Anonymous traffic from Google searchers can drive profile views without notifications if your profile is public.

Essentially, Google searchers can anonymously find and view public LinkedIn profiles, but totally private profiles remain invisible and anonymous to Google. Profile owners only receive notifications for authenticated, logged-in viewers.

Is there a way to know if someone downloads or prints your profile?

There is no official way to know within LinkedIn if someone anonymously downloads or prints your profile. LinkedIn does not send notifications for these anonymous actions.

Your only indication might be seeing increased profile views without corresponding notifications. But it is not possible to differentiate anonymous printing versus other types of anonymous profile views.

Should LinkedIn add more anonymous profile viewing options?

There is an argument that LinkedIn should expand anonymous viewing options to give users more control. Here are some potential anonymous viewing features LinkedIn could add:

• Anonymous messaging – Have the option to anonymously message profiles without sharing your identity.
• Enhanced anonymous browsing modes – Let users opt-into a “private mode” where all their browsing is anonymous.
• Anonymous InMail – Send anonymous InMail messages that do not reveal your identity.
• Anonymous mode for company pages – Browse company pages anonymously like personal profiles.

These enhanced anonymous features could facilitate discreet business inquiries, job hunting, and exploring options without revealing one’s identity. However, full anonymity also carries risks of inappropriate behavior without accountability.

Conclusion

Anonymous LinkedIn profile viewing allows discreet browsing but certain limitations are necessary to prevent harassment issues. The current rules strike a balance where anonymous light browsing is allowed but any engagement or outreach still reveals the user’s identity.

For those concerned about privacy, it is good practice to keep your profile private and vet connections carefully. While anonymous viewing has advantages, profiles set fully public pose the highest risk of being viewed anonymously without your knowledge.