LinkedIn is one of the most popular professional social networking sites, with over 700 million users worldwide. With so many people using LinkedIn, it’s common to wonder who has been looking at your profile and viewing your account settings. Here’s a quick guide to understanding who can see your LinkedIn profile settings and how you can adjust your privacy.
What LinkedIn profile settings are visible to others?
By default, your name, headline, current position, education, skills, and endorsements are visible to anyone on LinkedIn. Your connections, their connections, and LinkedIn members can see this information.
Additionally, 2nd degree connections (connections of your connections) and possibly recruiters can see your LinkedIn profile photo, city, and industry. Essentially, much of your profile is public to enable networking and opportunity creation.
However, there are some LinkedIn settings that are always private unless you specify otherwise. These include your email address, phone number, birthday, interests, groups, salaries, recommendations, certifications, courses, projects, honors, test scores, patents, languages, publications, and volunteer experiences.
Who can see your private profile settings?
Although parts of your profile are visible to anyone, your private account settings are only fully visible to you and certain connections based on your privacy settings.
By default, only 1st degree connections (people you are directly connected with) can see your private information like email, phone number, birthday, etc. You can adjust settings to also allow your 2nd degree networks to see some of these details.
Additionally, you can control whether recruiters see your private information. Under account settings, you can specify for recruiters to see “Profile and contact info” or just “Profile info.”
Essentially, you control how much others see of your private profile based on their relationship with you and your configured settings.
How to see who viewed your profile
LinkedIn has a feature that shows you who has been looking at your profile. Here’s how to find it:
- Go to your LinkedIn profile
- Click on the “Me” icon in the top right corner
- Select “View profile visitors” under the dropdown menu
This will show you a list of people who have recently looked at your profile. You’ll see their name, headline, company, location, industry, and relationship to you (1st, 2nd, or 3rd degree connection).
A few things to note about profile views:
- You’ll only see people who viewed your full profile, not just snippets
- LinkedIn shows approximately the last 90 days of profile views
- You won’t see anonymous visitors or views by people you’ve blocked
- Some views may be hidden to protect user privacy
So in summary, this feature gives you a glimpse of who has been looking at your profile recently.
How to see who viewed your LinkedIn activity
In addition to profile views, you can also see who viewed your LinkedIn activity under the “Posts & Activity” tab.
This shows you who has been looking at your posts, comments, likes, mentions, etc. It can be useful for gauging how much engagement you’re getting from connections.
To access this:
- Go to your LinkedIn profile
- Click on “Posts & Activity” next to the profile icon
- Click on “Activity Broadcasts” on the left sidebar
- Toggle “Impressions” on to see details of who viewed your activity
Similar to profile views, you’ll see the name, headline, company, location, and relationship. This gives insight into who is engaging with your content.
Who can see when you view someone else’s profile?
Viewing transparency goes both ways on LinkedIn. When you look at someone else’s profile, here is what they can see about you:
- Your name and headline (if you’re a 1st degree connection)
- An anonymous profile for 2nd and 3rd degree connections and unconnected members
Essentially, directly connected profiles will know when you visit their profile. Other profiles will see an anonymous visitor instead.
A few extra details:
- You can turn off your name/headline appearing to 1st connections in Settings
- Paid premium account holders can sometimes see full visitor details
- You can browse anonymously using LinkedIn’s private mode
So in summary, directly connected profiles will see you in their visitor list, while other connections will see an anonymous visitor.
Who receives notifications when you view their profile?
Simply viewing someone’s profile does not trigger a notification to them. The only notification is if you interact further, such as liking/commenting on a post or sending a connection request.
The profile owner will see your name in their visitor list, but they do not receive real-time alerts just for a profile view.
The exceptions are:
- If you visit from a premium Business or Sales Navigator account
- When you visit a profile after interacting earlier (liking, commenting, etc)
In these cases, the profile owner may receive a notification of your re-visit. But generally, passive profile views do not proactively notify the user.
Who can see your LinkedIn search history?
Your LinkedIn search history is private and is not visible to others. Only you can see the profiles, companies, groups, posts, and other content that you’ve searched for.
A few notes on search privacy:
- Your search keywords are not logged or tracked
- Your search history is tied to your account and not visible to anyone else
- You can delete individual items or clear your full history at any time
So in summary, your LinkedIn search history is kept private as you browse profiles, companies, groups, and content on the platform.
Who can see your LinkedIn page visits?
Similar to search history, the Pages that you visit across LinkedIn are private and not visible to others. Pages include company profiles, Groups, Schools, and Publisher Pages.
Specifically:
- Pages you visit do not appear in your profile activity
- Page owners do not receive notifications when you simply visit
- Only you can see the list of Pages visited within your account
The exception is Company Pages – employees of that company may see visitor analytics for their Company Page, but not individual visitors.
In summary, your Page visits across LinkedIn are anonymous and private unless you actively engage further.
Who can see your list of LinkedIn connections?
Your full list of LinkedIn connections is visible to you and your 1st degree connections by default. In other words, anyone you are connected with can see your entire connections list.
However, you can change this setting to only show your connections the connections you have in common, not your full list. Here’s how:
- Go to your Account settings
- Select “Profile”
- Under “Profile viewing options”, change “Your connections” to “Only connections in common”
Additionally, anyone beyond a 1st degree connection will not see your connections list at all, just your profile details and activity.
So in summary, your full connections list is visible to 1st degree connections by default, but you can limit it to just mutual connections.
Who can see your LinkedIn group memberships?
Your LinkedIn group memberships are visible to 1st degree connections by default, but you can change this to be private. Here’s how:
- Go to your profile Privacy & Settings
- Select “Groups” under the “Profile” tab
- Change “Show groups you belong to on your profile” to “No”
When enabled, 1st degree connections will see the groups you’ve joined under the “Groups” section of your profile.
Additionally, within group posts and discussions, your name and photo will appear publicly when interacting in the group.
But your full list of groups can be made private at any time. Anyone beyond a 1st degree connection will not see any group memberships.
Conclusion
In summary:
- Much of your LinkedIn profile is public by default
- Private information is visible to your 1st degree network
- You control visibility of email, phone, birthday, etc through your settings
- You can see who viewed your full profile and activity feed
- 1st degree connections see your name when you view their profile
- Your search history, page visits, and groups can be kept private
So in essence, you have options to limit visibility of certain profile information if you want to share less publicly. But many aspects of LinkedIn are intentionally public to enable effective networking and opportunity creation.
The key is configuring your settings to your comfort level based on career goals. Finding the right balance takes some experimentation. But overall, the more you engage professionally on LinkedIn, the more others will see components of your profile and activity.
Profile Section | Visible to Public | Visible to Connections |
---|---|---|
Photo | Profile photo only | Yes |
Name & Headline | Yes | Yes |
Current Position | Yes | Yes |
City & Industry | 2nd Connections + | Yes |
Education | Yes | Yes |
Skills | Yes | Yes |
Email & Phone | No | 1st Connections |
Recommendations | No | 1st Connections |
Tips for managing your LinkedIn profile visibility
Here are some best practices for managing your LinkedIn profile visibility:
- Complete your profile 100% to look credible and professional.
- Customize visibility settings for your name, photo, connections, etc.
- Be selective about sharing private contact info like email/phone.
- Review activity broadcasts and impression stats to see engagement.
- Disable notifications to avoid unwanted attention.
- Use private browsing if you want to be anonymous.
- Be thoughtful about joining groups as it shows affiliation.
- Clean up old posts/activity that no longer represent you.
Balancing visibility vs. privacy on LinkedIn is nuanced. But in general, err towards showing your professional brand to spur opportunities, while limiting personal details to avoid misuse.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can LinkedIn admins see my profile views?
No, LinkedIn admins and staff members do not have any special access to view your profile visitors or activity. The only information visible is what you permit connections to see based on your account settings.
Can I see who viewed my LinkedIn profile anonymously?
No, LinkedIn does not show anonymous profile visitors in your viewer list. You will only see names of members that you are connected to in some way. True anonymous viewers are not tracked or displayed.
Is there a way to see LinkedIn stalkers?
There is no foolproof way to identify “stalkers” on LinkedIn. The profile visitor and activity stats give you clues, but they do not definitively identify suspicious behavior vs. normal interest. Use common sense when evaluating patterns and if needed, proactively block or report prolific viewers.
Can premium subscribers see more profile views?
Yes, premium Business and Sales Navigator subscribers can see expanded profile view analytics, such as viewers by seniority level and industry. They may also detect anonymous profile views that regular members cannot see.