How to Sneak Into Someone’s LinkedIn Profile Without Them Knowing
One of the most annoying features of LinkedIn is its insistence on snitching . Every time you visit a person’s LinkedIn profile, the site informs that person, which goes against the philosophy of most other social networks: “Of course, look at their page – they’ll never know.” LinkedIn is trying to convince you that it works both ways: yes, you’re talking about yourself when you view someone’s profile, but you also see when someone views yours . I’m sure this transparency is for professional networking and gives you an idea of which pros are considering your skills, but sometimes you want to know more about another pro without them knowing.
Maybe you’re taking the time to research your interviewer, or maybe you’re curious about your boss’s experience, but being notified that you’ve viewed his page raises more questions than you care to answer. In any case, there is no reason to open access to everyone if you do not want to.
How to Browse LinkedIn Privately
LinkedIn actually has several different transparency modes that you can choose from when viewing other users’ profiles. To access them, sign in, then click on your profile (under Me) and select Settings & Privacy. In the sidebar, select Visibility, then select View Profile.
Here you will see three options. By default, “Your name and title” will be selected, as well as a preview of what each user sees when you click on their profile. However, your second choice is “Personal Profile Features”. This option tells the user only a small fact about your network, not any perceptible information about you. For example, if this setting is enabled, LinkedIn users may see that “Someone at G/O Media” viewed their profile rather than “Jake Peterson, Senior Technology Editor, Lifehacker at G/O Media.”
However, the last option is the one you need for complete privacy: “Private Mode” will not provide the user with any personal information, allowing you to view as many profiles as you want, completely incognito. You’ll still leave a mark, given one more profile view for every page you visit. But no one will be able to know that it was you, and they will not be given a hint of who you are.
Now, these two more private options have a caveat: If you choose to use them, you will no longer be able to see who has viewed your profile, and LinkedIn will erase your browsing history. The TikTok profile view history feature works the same, except the platform allows you to subscribe to profile views rather than the default for everyone.
Personally, I can live with this: I don’t need to know exactly who is viewing my profile, so I’m comfortable using LinkedIn’s private mode. If you absolutely need to know this, but don’t want other people to know when you browse their pages, you’ll have to pay for LinkedIn Premium. Otherwise, you are either all-in or completely out.
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