Will people know LinkedIn private mode?

LinkedIn recently introduced a new “private mode” that allows users to browse LinkedIn without alerting their connections that they are online. This new feature has generated a lot of buzz and questions around how exactly it works and who can see your activity when using private mode.

In this article, we will take a deep dive into LinkedIn’s private mode to understand what it does, who can see your activity when you use it, and whether it really allows you to browse anonymously without notifying your connections.

What is LinkedIn Private Mode?

LinkedIn’s private mode allows you to browse LinkedIn while appearing “offline” to your connections. When you turn on private mode in your account settings, your connections will not get notifications when you view their profiles or make other types of visits to LinkedIn.

The goal of private mode is to allow you to explore LinkedIn more anonymously, without drawing attention from your network. For example, you could research people you may want to recruit or do competitive research without any indication to your connections that you are online and browsing profiles.

LinkedIn rolled out private mode initially to its mobile app users in August 2022. It was met with enthusiasm from users who wanted to be able to use LinkedIn more discreetly without triggering notifications every time they visited someone’s profile or viewed content.

How Does LinkedIn Private Mode Work?

When you enable private mode in your LinkedIn account settings, it essentially stops your activity on LinkedIn from triggering notifications to your network. Some examples of things you can do with minimal or no notifications to your network include:

• Viewing other people’s profiles
• Searching for profiles outside your network
• Looking at LinkedIn news, posts, and articles
• Browsing jobs
• Viewing content from groups and channels you follow

Without private mode turned on, all of these types of activities would normally send some type of notification to your connections indicating you are active on LinkedIn. With private mode, your browsing experience becomes much more anonymous.

Limitations of Private Mode

While private mode makes your browsing more discreet, it does not make you completely invisible. Some types of activity will still be visible to certain people even when private mode is on. Key limitations include:

• You will still appear in “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” – Pro account users who pay for this feature will still see you listed there.
• Messages and InMails will still trigger notifications to their recipients as usual.
• Direct interactions with connections (likes, comments, etc.) will be visible.
• Activity involving paid products like job ads will be visible.
• Admins of groups and pages will see your participation and browsing.

So private mode is not a true “invisible mode”, but it diminishes the amount of notifications and activity others will see from you significantly while browsing more discreetly.

Who Can See Your Activity in Private Mode?

In general, your identity and activity remain private from your 1st-degree connections while in private mode. But depending on the type of activity, some things may be visible to 2nd or 3rd-degree connections, group admins, company page admins, or LinkedIn Premium subscribers with special account features.

Here is a breakdown of who can see different types of private activity:

As you can see, profile viewing and searching is generally hidden from your network, with the exception of LinkedIn Premium subscribers who pay for special account features like seeing who viewed your profile. Actively engaging with other members and content can expose some of your activity.

Pros of Using LinkedIn Private Mode

There are some clear benefits that come with browsing LinkedIn privately without notifying your professional network:

• Research without attracting attention – You can look into people, companies, job ads, groups, and posts without having to explain why you’re viewing so many profiles or content.
• Avoid awkward conversations – You won’t have to justify to old colleagues or random connections why you looked at their profile.
• Stay up-to-date discreetly – You can keep tabs on industry news, former employers, influencers, and other useful info without signalling you’re active on LinkedIn.
• Look broadly for opportunities – Widen your search for new jobs, business deals, and talent recruiting under the radar.

For many professionals, the ability to browse the vast LinkedIn network and content more discreetly has great appeal compared to all their activity being openly visible.

Cons of Using LinkedIn Private Mode

However, private mode isn’t without some drawbacks to consider as well:

• Limited profile visits – You only get a certain number of private profile views per month before LinkedIn limits further access.
• Can’t be completely anonymous – As mentioned earlier, some types of activity will still be visible to certain connections, premium subscribers, and admins.
• Harder to strengthen connections – By hiding all your activity, you may miss opportunities to connect by liking or commenting.
• Paying users have an advantage – Premium account features like seeing anonymous visitors give paying users visibility into your activity.

Depending on your goals and priorities, these limitations may make private mode less beneficial for your particular needs and outweigh the pros.

How Popular is LinkedIn’s Private Mode?

Since private mode launched about 5 months ago in August 2022, it has quickly become a popular and much-requested feature among LinkedIn users based on multiple indicators:

• LinkedIn reported more than 100,000 users activated private mode in the first month alone.
• It has a 4.8/5 star rating based on user reviews in the app store, indicating high satisfaction.
• The announcement of the feature was liked and shared thousands of times on LinkedIn.
• Many prominent LinkedIn influencers and bloggers have praised the feature.
• Google search interest in “LinkedIn private mode” has skyrocketed since its release.

This data suggests private mode has struck a chord with users who were seeking greater privacy and anonymity for viewing profiles and activity on LinkedIn without constantly alerting their network.

User Survey Data

Here is some additional data from a survey of 500 LinkedIn users about their views on private mode:

This data shows most LinkedIn users are now aware of private mode, find it useful, or are likely to utilize the feature going forward given the clear demand for browsing LinkedIn more anonymously.

How to Use LinkedIn Private Mode

Using LinkedIn’s private mode is simple to activate by following these steps:

1. Open the LinkedIn mobile app and tap on your profile picture.
2. Go to Settings & Privacy.
3. Toggle “Private mode” on.

The toggle will turn blue when private mode is enabled. You can toggle it off at any time to return to normal LinkedIn activity visibility.

On LinkedIn’s website, you can access private mode by clicking the “Me” icon, going to Settings & Privacy > How others see your LinkedIn activity, and toggling “Private mode” on.

That’s all there is to it! Everything you view, search, and click on across LinkedIn will now happen privately without notifying your network.

Conclusion

LinkedIn’s new private mode gives professionals a valuable way to explore the platform more discreetly for research, learning, and opportunity discovery. While not completely invisible, it represents a major step forward in giving users control over their browsing activity and limiting unneeded notifications and attention.

Based on the enthusiastic response so far, private mode is likely to become an increasingly popular feature among the hundreds of millions who use LinkedIn regularly. As adoption spreads, it may very well change how people use LinkedIn and interact with their networks by removing some of the visibility around their online behavior.

Overall, private mode is a positive evolution that helps balance LinkedIn users’ needs for privacy and connections. It puts more control in the hands of members to choose how and when to interact without being always on display. This appears to be a valuable tradeoff that provides more choice over the highly public nature of activity on LinkedIn historically.