How to Control What People See on Your Linkedin Profile

Are you a private person or are you happy to be visible to the rest of the world? Well luckily, LinkedIn has options for both types of people. Profile visibility can be altered depending on who you’d like to see your profile, whether they’re LinkedIn members or not. Generally, when you first sign up to LinkedIn, all sections of your profile will be visible to anyone and everyone. However, that can soon be changed by the click of a few buttons, but how? 

In order to change the visibility of your profile, you have to “customise your public profile settings”. This enables you to set limits on what sections or how much of your profile information is visible. To do this, you simply have to turn “on” or “off” the profile sections that you want to be visible to the public. The limits you set here will affect how your profile appears to non-members, who are browsing through search engines, profile badges, and permitted services like Outlook.

How To Change Your Profile Visibility 

• Head over to your profile by clicking the “Me” icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage and then “View profile”.
• Next click “Edit public profile & URL” on the right side of the page.
• To hide your profile from public view, change your profile’s public visibility to “Off”.
• In order to hide a specific profile section, select “Off” on the section you want to hide.
• Your changes will be saved automatically.

If you’re concerned about what people signed up to LinkedIn or your connections can see, here are a few things you might not be aware of…

• If you’ve added contact information to your profile, it’s only visible to 1st-degree connections, members that you’ve sent a connection request to (if it’s still pending), and members whose InMail you’ve responded to (unless you declined their request to share your contact info).
• 1st-degree connections can also see who you’re connected to on LinkedIn unless you change your settings. 
• You can also alter your settings to limit who can see your posts, shares, profile photo, last name and birthday. 

Privacy is an extremely important aspect of any platform, so it’s vital that you’re given the opportunity to protect your data where necessary. Whether you prefer to keep your profile personal or you’re happy to be visible, there’s a profile privacy setting for everyone. But, if you’re looking to sell and grow your business using LinkedIn you have to be willing to be seen by everyone. There are options to block singular trolls on the website without completely hiding your profile. Stay safe out there!