Going Private On Linkedin
If you leave LinkedIn with the basic parameters, you will know how many users have browsed your profile, and who they are. You can see the profiles of people who have seen you. Everyone has, at some point, received this notification: a LinkedIn user has seen your profile.
Actually, a report exists on LinkedIn, that allows you to check your visibility on the social network. It displays the number of profiles that have seen you, and the social profiles of users who have found you.
Under that table, you will see the list of people who viewed your profile. You will have access to their user name, job title, company and profile photo. Click on them to get to their account page and see their social profile.
You may notice that not all profiles and views are displayed in this report. There is indeed a private, or incognito, mode on LinkedIn. When activated, your visit to another profile will not be notified or counted: you are free to view profiles without being tracked. The person will therefore not know your first and last name and will not have access to your profile and personal information. It is a great way to know a persons profile without them knowing it.
To be noted: activating LinkedIns private mode will prevent you from using the Who viewed your profile report for your own profile. However, LinkedIn allows its premium users to activate the private mode while still being able to access that private data.
Howactivating The Private Mode On Linkedin Affects The Linkedin Whos Viewed Yourprofile Section
The main disadvantage of turning on Private Mode while usingLinkedIn is that it erases all the information you have in your LinkedIn Whosviewed your profile section on the site. That means you can no longer see whoviewed your profile, so you have no way to connect with all these people. Inorder to get around this limitation you will have to spend money for LinkedInpremium, and even then you still cant overcome all the limitations of usingthe Private Mode feature.
Keeping Private Mode on all the time will limit yourinteractions with others on LinkedIn in a big way. If youre using the site fornetworking purposes, this is a major disadvantage of the tool. Youll lose outon potential conversations, on potential connections and opportunities tocreate beneficial business relationships. This is the last thing that mostbusiness owners or marketing executives want to do on LinkedIn.
Linkedin Private Mode For Lead Generation
If youre doing lead generation on LinkedIn, you might want to turn off private mode at first.
And then, turn it back on again when youre doing outreach.
Heres why:
When youre creating a cold audience you want to reach out to, its better to not give it away that youre going to message them itll spoil the surprise.
Instead, when your LinkedIn profile is fully optimized, you have a list of leads, and you know what youre going to say in your connection request and social selling messages, you can turn it back on.
This way, when you click on their profile to connect, theyll get a notification that you viewed their profile. Then, in your connection request message, you can say how you came across something specific from when you were viewing the profile.
Something like:
Hey ,
Came across your profile from your latest post about using personalization for LinkedIn lead generation.
I was wondering if you could share the Top 3 LinkedIn outreach strategies you mentioned in your summary?
Thanks!
Heres why this works:
PS Be sure to check out our guide on that get a ~49% reply rate for social selling templates that work.
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How To Prevent Being Exposed
If you browse a profile in the next 90 days that youve looked at while being in a private mode, they will see your past activity if they are members. So, dont browse the same profile you visited anonymously within this period. Otherwise, theres no point in using private mode.;
If you have a basic account and you activate the private mode, you wont be able to see who has viewed your profile as well. Thats only possible if you have a premium account. But, even then, you wont be able to see the users whove chosen to stay anonymous.
How Can I Stop Linkedin From Telling People I Viewed Their Profile

doesnt do subtlety. By default, if you go to someones profile page the site assumes youll want them to know as if theyre guaranteed to find the attention intriguing or flattering, rather than downright creepy.;
But what if you dont want someone to know youve visited their profile? Well, there are a couple of options, though they all have their drawbacks.
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How To Be Anonymous In Linkedin
71 Views
Often times, we just want to go through different media platforms without letting anyone know that you were there. However, when you hop onto LinkedIn, this is not always the case. The online network platform displays the name of anyone who has visited another persons profile under the Whos viewed your profile page.
So, how in the world do you take a look at someones profile while staying below the radar? In this article, we will provide you a step-by-step process to do just that. However, lets first understand what LinkedIn is and what this online service is all about.
Change What Users Can See You View Their Linkedin Profile
- Login to your LinkedIn account if you havent done so.
- Navigate and click the Me icon from the menu.
- Once youre on the Profile Privacy section, you should select Change, its located next to Profile viewing options.
- There is the option that says Select what others can see when you view their profile, you choose the option you want, but its better to just select Show name and headline.
- Save your settings and exit.
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How To Anonymously View Someones Linkedin Profile
Yes, its true. You can indeed view someones profile without them knowing and without paying for the Premium version of .
Why might you want to do this? Here are some of the reasons I recommend to my Guidance Counselling for Adults students
- To get a sense for how someone has framed their experience
- To find potential contacts for coffee chats
- To do research on the people who may be interviewing you
- To see what other people with your experience/education/skills are doing
- To see who is working at a particular organization or company
- To get more info about your potential future colleagues
- To research former colleagues or classmates
Could you do all of these things without being in private mode on LinkedIn?
You definitely could and it can be very strategic to do so at the right time- but I recommend that your profile be up to snuff before you do.
So how do you go anonymous?
Here are 5 quick steps:
How To See Who Viewed Your Linkedin Profile From A Pc
LinkedIns Who Viewed Your Profile feature is technically available on both Basic and Premium LinkedIn accounts. However, there are a couple of differences.
When it comes to the Basic, free LinkedIn account, you can see who viewed your profile only if you allow other LinkedIn members to see your account when you view their profile. This is done by adjusting the private and semi-private mode you can set when you go to Profile viewing options. In other words, if you use private mode on LinkedIn, then you wont be able to use the Who Viewed Your Profile feature.
However, if you have a Premium LinkedIn account, youll be able to use this feature even if youre in private mode.
To set your profile viewing options to display your name and headline when you visit other profiles on LinkedIn, follow the steps below:
The changes to your account will be saved automatically. Now that youve enabled others to view your name when you see their profile, youll be able to see who viewed your profile as well.
This is how its done on a PC:
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Does Linkedin Show Who Viewed Your Profile
Does LinkedIn Show Who Viewed Your Profile?;
Yes, if they are not viewing in private mode.;
Does that mean if I visit someones profile, they will know I did?;
Exactly! If you are not viewing in private mode.;
However, there are a few other caveats that you should be aware of regarding LinkedIn profile views and anonymity.
You will need a premium LinkedIn account to see all of your profile viewers. The LinkedIn premium for individuals costs $29.99 per month. For business accounts, it is $59.99 per month.
With the free LinkedIn basic account, you will be able to see only up to 5 most recent viewers.;
Can Someone Tell If I Viewed Their Linkedin Profile
LinkedIn often tells people when you view their profiles and shows them your name. That person may even get an email or alert saying you viewed their profile. As LinkedIn warns you on this settings page, theres just one downside: When you become anonymous to other people, they become anonymous to you.
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Whatis Linkedin Private Mode And How To Use It
LinkedIn Private Mode is a special feature that was introduced back in early 2015, and it offers users the ability to control what information they share when looking at the profiles of other users. When you visit the profile of another user on LinkedIn, your information is kept for that user so they can see who was looking at their profile and perhaps reach out to that person. Private mode allows you to opt out of that feature and keep your searches more discreet. ;
Private Mode Lets You
- Browse user profilesanonymously
- Navigate around LinkedInwithout leaving a trail behind
Private mode is a setting that is quick and easy to adjust,and that anyone can make use of whether they have LinkedIn premium or not.
Steps to Turn on Private Mode on a Laptop or Desktop
- Now use the Your profilespublic visibility slider to set your profile to private or public.
- You can also edit publicvisibility specifics by adjusting the settings down under the slider.
Can you make theseadjustments on the mobile LinkedIn app?
Yes, absolutely! If youre interested in using the PrivateMode feature on LinkedIn, you dont need to set this option up on a computer.You can turn the feature on through the mobile app as well. Simply follow theshort list of steps below and you can switch from public, to partially privateor fully private.
Steps to Turn onPrivate Mode on Mobile
How To Stop Linkedin Telling People You Viewed Their Profile

LinkedIn itself does actually have a way of preventing people from knowing when youve visited their profile. Activating this mode will mean that instead of saying your account was visited by from , it can be anonymised to be a in the or even just Anonymous LinkedIn Member. Just go to Settings & Privacy, then Profile viewing options under How others see your LinkedIn activity.
However, if you studied the above picture in any detail, youll see the sacrifice involved. Selecting Private profile characteristics or Private mode will disable Whos Viewed Your Profile and erase your viewer history, the page warns. Yes, in other words if you want to be anonymous to others, everyone becomes anonymous to you which is fair enough, really.
That is, unless youre willing to pay. If you , you get to have your cake and eat it too: being anonymous to others while seeing people who visited your profile .;
But what if you just want to see one persons profile without them knowing, but dont want to lose your entire history? Well, thats when Incognito mode is your friend assuming the person youre looking up has a distinct name and industry.;;
Simply open an Incognito window in your browser of choice, then Google your contacts name and company plus the word LinkedIn. Note that most peoples privacy settings will prevent this showing too much of their profile, but it might be enough for a top line and crucially they wont know who dropped by.
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How Do You Search Profiles On Linkedin Anonymously
Can I look at someones LinkedIn without them knowing or how do you search profiles on LinkedIn anonymously and Browsing Profiles in Private and Semi-Private Mode
When you view a profile in private mode, youll appear in that persons Whos Viewed Your Profile section as LinkedIn Member This person is viewing profiles in private mode. No other information about you will be shared with the member whose profile you viewed.
When you browse in semi-private mode, your profile characteristics such as job title, company, school, and industry will be shown to the member you are viewing .
To change your browsing mode:
- Select Settings & Privacy from the dropdown.
- In the Visibility of your profile & network section, click Change
- Select the mode youd like to browse in.
- You have three options:
Take The Help Of Google To View A Linkedin Profile
This is the easiest method to check someones profile anonymously. With the help of this method, you can view your LinkedIn profile without logging in to your profile. All you have to do is to search the name of the person on Google whose profile you want to view. You might get a lot of results. Hence, to avoid unnecessary results, type the company name or profession as well. For example Aman Gehalot LinkedIn EMIAC Technologies.
Now just click on the top search results to check the profile of that person anonymously. Along with that, you can also see who is viewing your profile. However, there are certain limitations to this method. Sometimes you might see limited information on the profile. Hence, we usually do not prefer this method.
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Make Changes In Account Settings
If you want to know a solution to how to view a LinkedIn profile without login, this method is the answer. You can look at Linkedin profiles anonymously by just making some changes in your account settings. However, these changes can also make other people anonymous, and youll no longer be able to check who has viewed your profile. So, you are advised to proceed with this method only when you are okay with the above condition.
Thats all. Now you can view a LinkedIn profile as anonymous. From now onwards, whenever you view someones profile, it will show them that some anonymous person has checked their profile.
However, selecting this option also disables you from keeping a check on the people who view your profile.
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Find Out Who Has Been Visiting Your Linkedin Profile
It can be quite useful to find out who has viewed your profile on LinkedIn. It will help you gain insight into your profiles visibility and your audience as well. Whether you have a Basic or a Premium account, youll be able to use the Who Viewed Your Profile feature on LinkedIn.
Have you ever tried to see who viewed your LinkedIn profile? Did you follow the same steps from this guide? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Change The Information That Will Be Visible Online
This is where you can control what others see on your profile, youre controlling your public view with this setting. Here is how to adjust this privacy option;
- Log into your LinkedIn account.
- Hit the Me icon from the navigation menu.
- Select the option Settings & Privacy.
- Choose the Privacy tab.
- Select the option Edit Public Profile.
- Then you click on Edit Visibility which by the right of the screen.
What Happens When You Switch To Private Mode
Basically, two things happen when you turn on your LinkedIn account to private mode, one is that youre browsing anonymously, thats other LinkedIn users cannot identify you.
The second effect of LinkedIn Private mode is that you can navigate the platform without leaving a trail. LinkedIn by default shows profile visitors, going private means youre blocking users from viewing you as their profile visitor.
They can see that a visitor has landed on their profile but theyll have no idea youre the one, their name will be hidden from them.
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Whyyou Would Want To Use Linkedin Private Mode And When
Different users have varying reasons for wanting to useLinkedIn Private Mode. Some job-seekers prefer to keep themselves anonymouswhile looking at different companies in their industry, especially if they areresearching while actively employed. Sales specialists and recruiters alsomight want to keep themselves hidden while generating a big list of potentialleads until they finally reach out.;
Generally, if you want to do a bit of anonymous browsingaround LinkedIn, Private Mode can be a good tool to do that. Many newer usersalso enjoy staying private while looking around and trying to learn more aboutthe LinkedIn platform early on.