LinkedIn is a popular professional networking site that allows you to connect with coworkers, colleagues, clients, and more. As you build your network on LinkedIn, it’s important to adjust your privacy settings to control how much of your profile and activity is visible to others.
LinkedIn has robust privacy and data controls that allow you to limit the visibility of your connections, profile information, posts, and other activity. Resetting your privacy settings can help restrict access to your sensitive information and curate your LinkedIn presence.
Why reset your LinkedIn privacy settings?
There are a few key reasons you may want to reset your privacy configurations on LinkedIn:
- You want to limit what connections can see about your work history, education, skills, etc.
- You want to remove yourself from appearing in search engine results
- You want to stop being suggested to others as a potential connection
- You want to stop being notified every time someone views your profile
- You want to approve or block connection requests before they are shared
Resetting your settings can quickly put guardrails on your profile and activity so that you share information only with the people and networks you expressly approve.
Step 1: Adjust profile visibility settings
Your profile includes key details like your work experience, education, skills, recommendations, and more. By default, much of this information is visible to your first-degree connections.
To adjust your profile visibility:
- Click on the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage and select Settings & Privacy.
- Choose Privacy from the menu on the left side of the page.
- Under the Profile viewing options section, click Edit your public profile settings.
- For each section of your profile, use the dropdown menu to select who can view the information. You can select options like Your Connections or Only you.
- Click Save to apply your changes.
Setting sections of your profile like work experience and education to Your Connections or Only you limits visibility. You can selectively showcase parts of your background while hiding other details.
Choosing your public profile visibility
LinkedIn allows you to choose between a public profile, visible on Google, or a private profile. To set this:
- From the Privacy page, click the Edit your public profile visibility link.
- Choose between a Public profile or Private profile.
- Click Save.
A private profile removes you from LinkedIn’s directory that’s viewable by search engines. A public profile makes it easier for people to find and connect with you.
Step 2: Configure your basic account settings
LinkedIn’s basic account settings control preferences like:
- Receiving notifications when your profile is viewed
- Being suggested as a potential connection to others
- Allowing others to follow you without connecting
Adjust these core settings by:
- Going to Settings & Privacy.
- Selecting Account from the left menu.
- Under Preferences, click Edit to adjust settings like:
– Profile viewing options
– Partner promotions
– Stay updated preferences - Under Account management, click Edit to adjust settings like:
– Connections
– Activity broadcasts
– Ad targeting - Click Save to apply any changes.
These configurations allow you to curate common notifications and visibility options when using LinkedIn on a daily basis.
Managing email and push notifications
You can further tailor notifications by:
- Going back to Settings & Privacy.
- Choosing Communications from the left menu.
- Clicking into each notification type like Email and Push notifications.
- Toggling individual preferences On or Off.
Turning off nonessential notifications can simplify your LinkedIn experience.
Step 3: Tighten access to your activity and connections
LinkedIn gives you options to limit access to your posts, likes, comments, and network of connections.
Adjust post and activity visibility
You can change who sees your future activity by:
- Going to Settings & Privacy.
- Choosing Privacy from the left menu.
- Under Sharing & visibility settings, click Edit your preferences.
- For each type of activity like posts, likes, comments, and more, use the dropdown to adjust visibility.
- Click Save to apply changes.
These settings give you granular control over who interacts with your activity moving forward.
Manage your LinkedIn connections
You can also configure preferences around your list of LinkedIn connections. Under the Account section of settings, edit options like:
- Approving or blocking connection requests
- Allowing others to follow you without connecting
- Choosing whether your connections are visible to others
Customizing these configurations provides additional oversight on your network.
Step 4: Leverage LinkedIn’s privacy checklist
For a comprehensive overview of your privacy settings, leverage LinkedIn’s privacy checklist:
- Go back to the Privacy tab in Settings & Privacy.
- Under Privacy management tools, click Run privacy checkup.
- Follow the on-screen guidance to review settings related to your profile, activity, connections, etc.
- Make adjustments to any concerning configurations.
Regularly running the privacy checkup ensures your settings align with your comfort level as your LinkedIn presence evolves.
Consider enhanced security options
For additional protection, LinkedIn allows you to set up:
- Two-step verification – Require a code from your mobile device to sign in to LinkedIn.
- Trusted contacts – Designate specific connections who can assist with account access issues.
These controls create further safeguards around your account and information.
Step 5: Review data privacy and advertising preferences
To see what personal data LinkedIn collects and manages about you, and to customize your advertising options:
- Go to Settings & Privacy and select Privacy.
- Under Information collected, click Review collected data.
- Browse the categories like Profile info, Contacts, Interests, etc. You can delete some data here.
- Under Advertising preferences, click Manage preferences to adjust ad options.
Regularly checking these settings optimizes your data privacy and targeted advertising experience on LinkedIn.
Downloading your LinkedIn data
You can also download a copy of your LinkedIn data for your records:
- Go back to Privacy settings.
- Under Getting a copy of your data, click Get a copy.
- Select the data types you want to download.
- Enter your password and click Request archive. LinkedIn will prepare an archive to download.
Reviewing your data gives you visibility into how LinkedIn collects and stores your information.
Conclusion
By leveraging LinkedIn’s robust account settings and privacy controls, you can easily reset your configurations to adapt to your changing needs and comfort level. Key settings to review include:
- Profile visibility
- Basic account preferences
- Sharing and visibility preferences
- Connection management
- Privacy checkup
- Advertising and data collection
Resetting these parameters on a regular basis allows you to proactively manage your LinkedIn presence and activity. With the right settings in place, you can focus on networking rather than privacy.