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4 ways to ensure your privacy on LinkedIn
On LinkedIn, the stakes are raised for who sees what on your profile or activity. Use these detailed tips to minimize professional harm resulting from your profile there.
Wed, Jan 23 2013 at 5:34 PM
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Unlike other social networks, which are foremost used for entertainment or news, LinkedIn is almost exclusively used for business purposes. That creates a presumed limiting factor on risky posts, behaviors and interactions you’ll have. But it also increases the stakes substantially — while it might be unlikely for you to be a Facebook friend of your current or former boss, business clients or even your next potential employer, it wouldn’t be uncommon at all on LinkedIn. But that doesn’t mean they need access to your entire world. As with any professional setting, some mystery is a good thing.
1. Don’t Broadcast Résumé Changes
To prevent every little update to your résumé being sent to the entire community, you can choose to limit them.
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Click your name on the top right.
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Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
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Click “Turn on/off your activity broadcasts” next to Profile and beneath Privacy Controls.
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Uncheck the box for “Let people know when you change your profile, make recommendations, or follow companies.”
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Click Save Changes.
Note: This is the same process you should follow when you’re making new connections with people of whom your boss might not approve. The above steps will ensure your activity feed is viewable only by you. Otherwise, that connection you make with a headhunter might lead straight to the unemployment line when your boss gets pinged with your update.
2. Hide Your Connections From the World
One of LinkedIn’s key components is the ability to openly see who has viewed your profile, but the reverse is obviously true and should be addressed. Depending on your position and field, it may be worth hiding your connections from snooping eyes by limiting them to direct connections.
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Click your name on the top right.
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Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
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Click “Select who can see your connections.”
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Toggle to Only You, instead of Your Connections.
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Click Save Changes.
3. Disconnect Other Social Networks
Crucially, just as with other social networks, we recommend against connecting them — an errant personal tweet appearing on your LinkedIn profile can lead to hot water quickly. If you’ve already done so, here’s how to separate your universes.
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Click your name on the top right.
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Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
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Click Manage Your Twitter Settings.
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Uncheck the box that says “Display your Twitter account on your LinkedIn profile.”
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Click Save Changes.
4. Stop Sharing Data with Third Parties
Why wouldn’t you?
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Click your name on the top right.
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Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
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Click the Groups, Companies & Applications tab.
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Click “Turn on/off data sharing with 3rd party applications.”
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Uncheck the box that says “Yes, share my data with third party applications.”
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Click Save Changes.
Related on LAPTOP and MNN:
This story was originally written for LAPTOP and is reprinted with permission here. Copyright 2013 LAPTOP, a TechMediaNetwork company.
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Thank you for sharing tip #1. This is great advice for anyone updating their profile so their connections don't see a whole stream of activity updates.
However, point #3 is a bit dated. LinkedIn no longer allows Twitter feed to post to LinkedIn. They only allow you to push your LinkedIn posts out to Twitter.