YIKES! My LinkedIn Privacy Settings!

I am a BIG, BIG fan of the recent new features and tweaks of LinkedIn.

Unfortunately, I was unaware of a little profile tweak of my own.  You may want to check your Privacy Settings > Profile Views to confirm they are still set the way you want them.

I have a dim recollection of a pop-up window … and hitting a button.  But I was busy!  This is what I get for navigating the Internet willy-nilly.

Confession:  I peek at people’s LinkedIn profiles.

I thought I was ”anonymous.”  I carefully checked the appropriate settings on LinkedIn Settings.  However, LinkedIn enhanced Profile Stats of who looked at your profile and how often your profile is included in search results.  When they made this change recently – I unintentionally clicked on the handy Yes, Change Your Setting button.  Also known as the “tell everyone you’ve peeked at their LinkedIn profile” button.  Oopsie!  What I should have done, instead of being lured in by the bright golden color:

The new Profile Stats are pretty slick.  However, I don’t have a use for them at this time.  I believe job seekers (even passive job candidates) would absolutely benefit from someone knowing that the job seeker reviewed their profile.  When sending your resume over to a company, it is an additional way to cut through all the resumes and have your name and smiling face waiting right there for people as an introduction.  If you are interviewing for a position, it would show an interviewer initiative and interest in the position.  You did your homework prior to presenting yourself as a candidate.

I’m an active Twitter fan, so I use LinkedIn to learn more about people that I connect with on that social media tool.  I don’t necessarily want them to know I have investigated their LinkedIn Profile.  So I prefer to be “anonymous.”  This is how you can check your status to confirm that you have your privacy settings the way you want them:

1.  After signing in to your LinkedIn account – hover over your name in the upper right hand side of your screen and click on Settings in the dropdown menu:

2.  In the righthand column, choose Profile Views:

 

3.  Once in Profile View – choose how you want people to see that you looked at their Profile:

Keep in mind, when you don’t share whose LinkedIn profiles you check out, you sacrifice the ability to see who looks at your profile when you click on this on your main LinkedIn page.

But for some – like me – that sacrifice is OK.