Most LinkedIn users have their profiles open to the public fully displaying all of their information.
Unlike LinkedIn private mode which hides all of your information on LinkedIn, hiding your profile lets you customize what you want to be seen by the public.
Here’s how to hide information on your LinkedIn profile.
How To Hide Your LinkedIn Profile?
Hiding your profile information is available for all LinkedIn users both on desktop and mobile.
Here’s how to hide your LinkedIn profile on your desktop:
- Click on your profile picture in the top right corner and click “View Profile.”
- Click on “Edit public profile & URL” on the right side.
- Look for the “Your profile’s public visibility” toggle.
- Turn it off
Doing this will completely hide your profile.
But what if you only want to hide certain parts of your LinkedIn profile?
Beneath the profile visibility toggle, you can toggle on/off many options of what information you want to hide.
For example, you can hide past experiences and education while allowing all other information to be seen.
You can even let your profile information be seen only by certain groups of people:
- Your 1st-degree LinkedIn connections
- Your LinkedIn network which includes 2nd and 3rd-degree connections
- Everyone on LinkedIn but excluding everyone off of it
- Anyone on and off LinkedIn
Why Should You Hide Your LinkedIn Profile?
There are several reasons you might want to hide your LinkedIn profile:
- Keep your job search secret – If you are currently looking for a new job opportunity, you might not want people in your network or your current employer to know you’re actively searching for a new job.
- Prevent unwanted attention – If you are receiving messages and connection requests from strangers and only want to connect on your own terms, hiding your LinkedIn profile will prevent them from seeing your profile.
- Online privacy – Hiding your LinkedIn profile is great if you want to hide your profile from Google limiting access to your data. This is also a great way to minimize the chances of your data being scraped by different scraping software.
- Taking a break – If you need a few weeks/months away from LinkedIn, hiding your profile is a great way to minimize disturbances and focus on what’s important.
- Updating your profile – Sometimes you are making big changes to your profile and don’t want people to see them until they are finished. Hiding your profile will prevent anyone from seeing what you are working on.
These are all valid reasons for hiding your profile from the public, but it’s important to consider the potential drawbacks such as limiting your visibility on LinkedIn and making it harder to connect with new people.
That’s why knowing when to hide and unhide your LinkedIn profile is so important.
- Only hide your LinkedIn profile when you have a valid reason for it like searching for a new job or researching competitors for example.
- Keep your profile hidden for short periods, a few weeks at most if you don’t plan on your profile being hidden long-term because of privacy.
- Don’t overdo it by hiding and unhiding your profile multiple times in a short period as it will mess with the search algorithm making your profile invisible when you want it o be visible.
Conclusion
Knowing how to hide your LinkedIn profile helps maintain your privacy or keep your information away from certain groups.
Before you decide to hide your profile think about the reason you want to do it.
By taking control of your profile visibility, you can use LinkedIn effectively while protecting your personal and professional interests.
