How to Access LinkedIn Privacy Settings

All LinkedIn privacy controls live in the same place. Here’s how to get there:

1. Click your profile picture in the top-right corner of the LinkedIn homepage.

2. Select “Settings & Privacy” from the dropdown menu.

3. Navigate to the Visibility tab. This is your control center for profile information, activity, and connections.

All the steps in this guide start from this Visibility tab unless otherwise noted.

Step 1: Turn On Private Mode for Anonymous Browsing

When you view someone’s profile on LinkedIn, they normally receive a notification showing your name and headline. Private Mode stops that; you become an anonymous visitor. Here’s how to turn it on:

1. Inside the Visibility tab, find “Profile Viewing Options.”

2. Select “Private Mode.”

⚠️ Note: Private Mode comes with a trade-off: once enabled, you can no longer see who has viewed your own profile. If you use LinkedIn premium and track profile views, you’ll lose that visibility for the duration of Private Mode.

💡 Pro Tip: Use Private Mode when you’re researching competitors, scoping out a company before an interview, or doing any browsing you’d rather keep discreet. Turn it off again when you’re actively networking and want profile visitors to see who you are.

Step 2: Control What the Public Sees on Your Profile

Your public profile is what non-connections (and search engines) can see. By default, most of it is visible. Here’s how to restrict it:

1. From your LinkedIn profile page, click “**Public Profile & URL”** (it’s on the right side of the screen).

2. In the Edit Visibility panel on the right, you’ll see toggles for each section of your profile: photo, headline, summary, experience, education, skills, and more.

3. Toggle off any sections you want to hide from public view.

4. To remove your profile from Google and other search engines entirely, toggle off the top-level “Your Profile’s Public Visibility” option.

You can be selective here. Keeping your headline and summary visible helps recruiters and potential clients find you while hiding the details you’d rather keep private. A fully hidden profile makes you harder to discover by the people you actually want to reach.

Step 3: Check What Others Actually See

Before adjusting privacy settings, it’s worth checking what your profile currently looks like to the outside world. Surprisingly, LinkedIn doesn’t make this easy; there’s no clean “view as stranger” button, so you have to simulate it yourself:

1. Click “Me” ****in the top navigation, then “View Profile.”

2. Find your profile URL in the “Public Profile & URL” ****card and copy it.

3. Open a new Incognito (Chrome) or Private (Firefox/Safari) window, one where you’re not logged into LinkedIn and your experience isn’t affected by cookies.

4. Paste your profile URL and hit enter.

What you see is exactly what a recruiter, competitor, or search engine visitor would find. It also confirms whether your profile still appears publicly after you’ve disabled visibility settings, since LinkedIn can take a little time to apply changes across all surfaces.