LinkedIn markets itself as the professional network—a place to build your career, connect with colleagues, and showcase your expertise. But with over 930 million users worldwide, it's also become a goldmine for recruiters, marketers, data brokers, and even scammers looking to harvest personal information. Making your LinkedIn profile private isn't just about avoiding unwanted messages; it's about controlling who can access your professional history, employment details, and network connections.

The challenge? LinkedIn's business model depends on data visibility. The platform wants you discoverable because that drives engagement, premium subscriptions, and advertising revenue. Their privacy settings are deliberately complex, scattered across multiple menus, and often reset without warning after updates. This guide will walk you through every LinkedIn privacy setting that matters, including the hidden ones most users never find.

Why LinkedIn Privacy Actually Matters More Than You Think

LinkedIn occupies a unique position in your digital footprint. Unlike Facebook or Instagram, your LinkedIn profile often contains your full employment history, education credentials, professional certifications, and detailed skill sets—exactly the information identity thieves need to impersonate you or craft convincing phishing attacks.

Data brokers specifically target LinkedIn because professional information commands premium prices. A data profile that includes your job title, employer, salary range, and professional connections can sell for 3-5x more than basic consumer data. Companies like ZoomInfo, Apollo.io, and dozens of other B2B data aggregators systematically scrape LinkedIn profiles to build sales intelligence databases, often without your explicit consent.

The professional nature of LinkedIn also makes it a prime vector for business email compromise (BEC) scams. According to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, BEC scams resulted in $2.7 billion in losses in 2022. Attackers use publicly visible LinkedIn profiles to identify organizational hierarchies, then impersonate executives to authorize fraudulent wire transfers.

Even if you're not worried about scammers, there's the career consideration: hiring managers and recruiters can see when you view their profiles unless you adjust your settings. This seemingly minor detail can signal that you're job hunting when you'd prefer to keep that information confidential from your current employer.

Step-by-Step: How to Lock Down Your LinkedIn Privacy Settings

LinkedIn's privacy controls are spread across multiple sections. Here's the systematic approach to making your LinkedIn profile more private without completely defeating the platform's networking purpose.

Accessing Your Privacy Settings

Click your profile picture in the top right corner
Select Settings & Privacy from the dropdown menu
You'll see three main tabs: Sign in & security, Visibility, and Data privacy

Most privacy controls live under the Visibility tab, but critical settings are scattered across all three sections.

Controlling Who Can See Your Profile

Navigate to Visibility → Visibility of your profile & network

Profile viewing options:

Click "Edit your public profile" to access the public-facing version of your profile
Toggle the "Public profile" switch to control whether your profile appears in search engines
Individually disable sections like your photo, headline, summary, and experience from public view

Critical setting most people miss: Even with a private profile, your name and profile photo may still appear in Google search results for up to 30 days due to search engine caching. To minimize this, set your public profile to show only your first name and last initial.

Profile viewing settings:

Go to Visibility → Profile viewing options
Select "Private mode" if you want to browse profiles anonymously
Trade-off: You won't see who viewed your profile if you browse anonymously

Controlling Search Visibility

Make your profile unsearchable by email and phone:

Navigate to Visibility → Visibility of your profile & network
Find "Who can find you by email" and set to "Only you" or "1st-degree connections"
Find "Who can find you by phone number" and set to "Only you"

This prevents people from finding your LinkedIn profile by entering your email address or phone number in LinkedIn's search—a common tactic used by data brokers and sales intelligence platforms.

Limiting Your Network Visibility

Hide your connections list:

Go to Visibility → Visibility of your profile & network
Find "Who can see your connections" and select "Only you"

This is crucial. Your connections list reveals your professional network, which data brokers use to infer relationships, map organizational structures, and build social graphs. Recruiters also use visible connections to identify who else at your company might be open to opportunities.

Controlling Activity Broadcasts

Stop announcing profile changes:

Navigate to Visibility → Visibility of your LinkedIn activity
Find "Share profile updates with your network" and toggle it OFF

When enabled, this setting notifies your entire network every time you update your profile—a dead giveaway that you're job hunting. Keep it off by default and only enable it temporarily when you want to announce a specific update.

Manage who sees your posts and activity:

Go to Visibility → Visibility of your LinkedIn activity
Adjust "Who can see your posts" to "Connections only" instead of "Public"
Set "Followers" to OFF if you don't want non-connections following your public updates

Restricting Data Sharing with Third Parties

Navigate to Data privacy → Other applications

LinkedIn allows third-party apps to access your profile data. Review and revoke access to any apps you don't actively use:

Click "Permitted services" to see which services can access your data
Remove any you don't recognize or no longer use
Be especially cautious with "career services" and "recruitment tools" that often resell data

What Each LinkedIn Privacy Setting Actually Controls

Understanding what each setting does—and doesn't do—helps you make informed decisions about your privacy posture.

The Public Profile Toggle

What it controls: Whether your profile appears in Google, Bing, and other search engine results. When disabled, search engines won't index your profile.

What it doesn't control: Your profile is still fully visible to logged-in LinkedIn users unless you've restricted individual sections. This setting only affects search engine visibility.

Recommendation: Disable if you're concerned about data brokers scraping your information from search results. Keep enabled if you want potential employers or clients to find you through Google.

Private Mode Browsing

What it controls: When you view someone's profile in private mode, they see "LinkedIn Member" instead of your name and details. You appear as an anonymous viewer.

What it doesn't control: LinkedIn still tracks your viewing behavior for their own analytics. You also lose the ability to see who viewed your profile—a significant trade-off for networkers.

Recommendation: Use selectively. Enable private mode when researching competitors or browsing profiles at companies you're interested in without alerting them. Disable it for normal networking.

Connection Visibility

What it controls: Who can see your full list of connections. Setting this to "Only you" prevents others from viewing your network.

What it doesn't control: People can still see mutual connections. If you're connected to someone, that connection is visible to both parties and appears in the "mutual connections" count.

Recommendation: Set to "Only you" unless you're actively using LinkedIn for sales or recruiting and want prospects to see social proof through shared connections.

Activity Broadcasting

What it controls: Whether your network receives notifications when you update your profile, follow companies, or make other changes.

What it doesn't control: People visiting your profile can still see your activity feed (recent posts, comments, and likes) unless you've restricted that separately.

Recommendation: Keep disabled permanently unless you have a specific reason to broadcast an update. You can always share important news manually through a post.

Hidden LinkedIn Privacy Settings Most Users Never Find

Beyond the obvious privacy controls, LinkedIn hides several important settings that significantly impact your data exposure.

The "Viewers of This Profile Also Viewed" Box

When someone views your profile, LinkedIn shows them a sidebar of similar profiles—potentially exposing you to people who wouldn't have found you otherwise.

To disable:

Go to Visibility → Visibility of your profile & network
Find "Viewers of this profile also viewed"
Toggle to NO

This prevents your profile from appearing in that recommendation box on other people's profiles.

LinkedIn Advertising Data

LinkedIn builds advertising profiles based on your activity and shares data with advertisers.

To limit ad targeting:

Navigate to Data privacy → Advertising data
Disable "Profile data for personalizing ads"
Disable "Data for personalized advertising from LinkedIn partners"
Review and clear any "Audience matched with advertisers" listings

These settings don't stop ads, but they limit how LinkedIn uses your profile data to target you and prevent advertisers from matching their customer lists with your LinkedIn profile.

Microsoft Integration

Since Microsoft acquired LinkedIn in 2016, there's been increasing data integration between the platforms.

To review Microsoft integrations:

Go to Data privacy → Other applications
Look for Microsoft-related services
Review what data is being shared

While you can't completely disconnect LinkedIn from Microsoft services, you can limit specific integrations like calendar sync and email insights.

Job Seeking Preferences Signal

LinkedIn offers a "Open to Work" feature that signals to recruiters you're job hunting.

The hidden risk: Even with the "Only recruiters" setting, this information can leak. Recruiters at your current company can still see it, and some data brokers have found ways to infer job-seeking status through algorithmic analysis of profile activity.

To review:

Go to your profile page
Look for the "Open to Work" section
Click to review who can see this information
Consider using the "All LinkedIn members" option only if you're openly job hunting

Download Your Data

LinkedIn is required under GDPR and CCPA to provide you with a copy of all data they've collected about you.

To request your data:

Navigate to Data privacy → Get a copy of your data
Select "Request archive"
Choose which data you want (select "All" for complete visibility)

Review this data carefully. You'll often find information you didn't realize LinkedIn was collecting, including:

Every ad you've clicked
Inferred demographic data
Search history
Messages you thought were deleted
Connections you've removed

What LinkedIn Still Collects Even with Maximum Privacy Settings

Making your profile private doesn't stop LinkedIn's data collection. Understanding what they still track is essential for realistic privacy expectations.

Behavioral Data Collection

Even with a completely private profile, LinkedIn continuously collects:

Every profile you view (even in private mode for LinkedIn's internal analytics)
Search queries you enter
Time spent on different sections of the platform
Click patterns and engagement with content
Connection requests sent and received
Message metadata (who you message, when, and how often—even if not message content)

This behavioral data feeds LinkedIn's recommendation algorithms and advertising platform. According to LinkedIn's privacy policy, they retain this data "as long as necessary for business purposes."

Device and Location Data

LinkedIn collects extensive technical data:

IP addresses and geolocation
Device type, operating system, and browser
Mobile advertising IDs
WiFi network information
Bluetooth-enabled devices nearby (on mobile app)

This data helps LinkedIn track you across devices and build a more complete profile of your behavior, even when you're not actively using the platform.

Third-Party Data Enrichment

LinkedIn supplements your profile with data from external sources:

Public records (property ownership, business registrations)
Partner data from Microsoft and other integrated services
Inferred information based on behavior patterns and connections
Data broker feeds that LinkedIn purchases to enhance profiles

This means even information you never provided to LinkedIn may appear in their internal profile of you.

Legal Basis and Limitations

Under GDPR Article 6(1)(f), LinkedIn claims "legitimate interest" as the legal basis for much of this data collection. Under CCPA Section 1798.100, California residents can request disclosure of collected data and opt-out of sale, but LinkedIn's terms of service argue they don't "sell" data in the traditional sense—they monetize it through advertising and premium services.

The practical reality: Privacy settings control what other users see, not what LinkedIn collects.

How Data Brokers Extract Your Information from LinkedIn—And How to Stop It

LinkedIn's privacy settings only control what happens on LinkedIn's platform. They don't stop the dozens of data brokers systematically scraping and reselling your professional information.

The Data Broker Scraping Pipeline

Data brokers use several methods to harvest LinkedIn data:

1. Automated scraping bots that systematically crawl public profiles, even those with limited visibility. Despite LinkedIn's terms of service prohibiting scraping, enforcement is inconsistent and data brokers often operate through offshore entities.

2. LinkedIn's official Sales Navigator API provides legitimate access to profile data for business customers. Some data brokers obtain this data through partnerships or by purchasing Sales Navigator licenses specifically for data harvesting.

3. Cross-referencing with other databases to enrich LinkedIn data with information from public records, social media, and purchased data sets. A data broker might find your LinkedIn profile through your email address obtained from a completely different source.

4. User-generated data sharing through browser extensions and mobile apps that promise networking features but actually harvest your contacts and connections.

Major Data Brokers Targeting LinkedIn

Several companies specialize in LinkedIn data aggregation:

ZoomInfo claims over 65 million company profiles and 150 million professional contacts
Apollo.io provides access to over 250 million contact profiles
Lusha specializes in B2B contact information extracted from LinkedIn
ContactOut specifically markets its ability to find email addresses from LinkedIn profiles
RocketReach aggregates professional contact data from multiple sources including LinkedIn

These are just the well-known players. The data broker industry includes over 2,100 companies—many operating with minimal public visibility—that collect, aggregate, and resell personal information.

Why LinkedIn Privacy Settings Aren't Enough

Even with maximum privacy settings:

Your name and headline often remain visible in search results
Mutual connections can reveal network information
Public activity (posts, comments, likes) creates a data trail
Historical data already scraped remains in broker databases
Cross-platform correlation links your LinkedIn to other online profiles

Data brokers build comprehensive profiles by combining fragments of information from hundreds of sources. Your LinkedIn data is just one piece, but it's often the most valuable because it includes verified employment history and professional credentials.

The Real Solution: Data Broker Removal

Making your LinkedIn private is important, but it's only the first step. To truly protect your professional information, you need to remove your data from the broker databases that have already collected it.

This is where the challenge becomes overwhelming. Manually requesting removal from even 50 data brokers requires:

Finding each broker's opt-out page (many deliberately hide them)
Creating accounts to verify your identity
Submitting separate requests with specific formatting requirements
Following up on requests that are ignored or "lost"
Repeating the process every few months as data reappears

Most people give up after the first few attempts. Data brokers count on this.

Automated removal services like GhostMyData solve this problem by continuously monitoring 2,100+ data broker sites—far more than the 35-500 covered by competing services. Using 24 specialized AI agents, the platform handles the tedious work of submitting removal requests, following up on non-compliance, and detecting when your information reappears.

You can start by running a free scan to see exactly which data brokers are currently selling your professional information. The results are often surprising—most people find their data on 50-100+ broker sites they've never heard of.

Maintaining LinkedIn Privacy Long-Term

Privacy isn't a one-time configuration—it requires ongoing maintenance as LinkedIn updates its platform and policies.

Quarterly Privacy Audits

Every three months, review:

Connected applications under Data privacy → Other applications
Advertising settings to ensure they haven't reset
Public profile visibility which sometimes changes after major LinkedIn updates
New privacy settings LinkedIn introduces (often defaulted to less private options)

Monitor Your Digital Footprint

Use Google to search for your name plus "LinkedIn" to see what's publicly visible:

Search: `"[Your Name]" site:linkedin.com`
Check results in an incognito window (logged out of all accounts)
Look for cached versions that might show old public data

Review Downloaded Data Annually

Request your complete data archive once per year to see:

What new data categories LinkedIn has added
Whether deleted information actually disappeared
What inferred data LinkedIn has generated about you

Stay Informed About Policy Changes

LinkedIn updates its privacy policy several times per year. These changes often expand data collection or sharing. When you receive a policy update notification:

Actually read the "What's Changed" section
Review affected settings immediately
Adjust your privacy preferences if needed

FAQ: LinkedIn Privacy Questions

Can I make my LinkedIn profile completely invisible?

You cannot make your profile completely invisible while maintaining an active account. Even with maximum privacy settings, your name and profile photo typically remain visible to logged-in LinkedIn users. The most restrictive configuration is: public profile disabled, profile viewing set to private mode, all sections hidden from public view, and connections list set to "Only you." However, your profile will still appear in searches by people who are logged into LinkedIn. The only way to be truly invisible is to close your account entirely, though LinkedIn retains some data even after deletion.

How to Make Your LinkedIn Profile Private