How do I hide my visits on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is a great platform for networking and making professional connections. However, you may not always want every person or company you visit on LinkedIn to know you stopped by their profile. Thankfully, LinkedIn offers options to browse more privately. Here are some tips on how to hide your visits on LinkedIn.

Use Private Mode

The simplest way to browse LinkedIn anonymously is to use Private Mode. This is LinkedIn’s built-in “incognito” browsing feature. When you turn on Private Mode in your account settings, LinkedIn will not show your name to other members when you view their profiles. You can think of it like browsing in invisible mode.

To enable Private Mode:

1. Click on your profile image in the top right corner
2. Select “Settings & Privacy” from the drop down menu
3. Go to the “Privacy” tab
4. Under “Profile viewing options,” toggle “Private Mode” on

When Private Mode is enabled, a small eye icon will appear next to your profile photo indicating your browsing is now anonymous. Other LinkedIn members will not be notified when you visit their pages. One thing to note is that when Private Mode is on, you lose the ability to see who has viewed your own profile.

Use an Anonymous LinkedIn Viewer

Another option is to use an anonymous LinkedIn profile viewer online. These services essentially let you browse LinkedIn through a proxy, so your own account identity is hidden. Some examples of anonymous viewers include:

• ViewLinkedInProfile.com
• Lurker.co
• BrowseInPrivate

To use one of these viewers, you just enter the URL of the LinkedIn profile you want to view. The service will fetch the page through their servers, obscuring your real IP address and account info. The profile owner will not know you viewed their page using the anonymous viewer. Just be aware some services may collect or store your browsing data.

Use a Secondary “Burner” Account

You can also create a secondary “burner” account on LinkedIn specifically for discreet browsing. Simply sign up for a new account using an alternate email address. Use this account when you want to check out other profiles without revealing your real identity. This keeps your primary professional account separate from any anonymous viewing activities.

The downside is you’ll have to logout and switch between your main and secondary accounts. You’ll also need to build up enough of a burner profile to avoid LinkedIn spam detection triggers. But the privacy upside is you can browse as much as you want without worrying about your real account being noticed.

Adjust Your LinkedIn Activity Broadcasts

LinkedIn automatically lets your connections know when you make certain visits by broadcasting your activity. For example, when you view someone’s profile, it may display in the recent activity ticker on your connections’ home feeds.

To reduce your browsing visibility, go to Settings & Privacy > How LinkedIn uses your data and adjust the following activity broadcast options:

• Profile viewing options – Set to “Your connections only” or “No one”
• Sharing profile edits – Set to “No”
• Newsfeed relevance – Set to “Don’t use my activity”

This limits public notifications when interacting with profiles and content. However, your 1st degree connections may still see some activity unless you use private mode.

Remove Yourself as a Profile Viewer

If you’ve already viewed someone’s profile without anonymity, they will see you listed in their list of profile visitors. To remove yourself, simply block that member from your account. This will erase you from their viewers list. You can then unblock them to remove the connection restriction.

To block a member:

1. Go to their profile
2. Click the More icon (…) next to the message button
3. Select Block

After blocking, any trace of your earlier profile view will be removed when you unblock them. Just be very careful not to re-view their profile again unless you want to get re-added to their visitors list.

Use LinkedIn in Offline Mode

You can also use LinkedIn in offline mode to stop any browsing activity from being logged. To enable offline mode:

1. Go to your Account Settings
2. Under Account Management, toggle “Offline mode” on

In offline mode, you can still browse many LinkedIn profiles and content, but nothing is recorded by LinkedIn’s servers. No profile visits or other activity will show up to other users. Offline mode essentially makes your browsing untraceable.

Conclusion

LinkedIn offers many helpful networking and profile viewing features – but that visibility goes both ways. If you want to check out a profile without leaving a digital footprint, utilize private mode, anonymous viewers, or secondary accounts to obscure your browsing tracks. Just be careful not to interact or view from your main account if you want to stay undetected.

With the right settings and tools, you can anonymously visit pretty much any LinkedIn profile or company page you want without the account owner ever knowing. But always browse ethically and avoid viewing private information of someone who has not authorized access.

FAQ

Is my LinkedIn browsing ever completely private?

Not completely. While the methods above hide your identity from the profile owners you visit, LinkedIn still logs all your activity to use for their own analytics and advertising purposes. Truly anonymous browsing would require using the LinkedIn API via an unauthorized third-party app or script.

Can I view a LinkedIn profile completely invisibly?

The closest to completely invisible browsing is to use an anonymous LinkedIn viewer service. This proxies your requests through the viewer’s servers so your account information is never exposed. However, many services will still log or sell your browsing data.

Does an anonymous profile viewer work on private LinkedIn profiles?

In most cases, no. Viewers rely on LinkedIn’s public API, which does not provide access to private profiles with limited viewing settings. You can only anonymously view fully public profiles available to all LinkedIn members when logged out.

Can I get banned from LinkedIn for using an anonymous viewer?

It’s unlikely, but a possibility. Viewing tons of profiles via an anonymous viewer may flag you for suspicious activity. However, occasional viewings are generally permitted, though discouraged by LinkedIn.

What are LinkedIn’s rules on anonymous browsing?

LinkedIn’s user agreement prohibits unauthorized anonymous browsing through third-party tools, bots, or scripts. However, using their built-in private mode or a secondary account you control is more acceptable by their standards.

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