LinkedIn Private Mode: How to View Profiles Anonymously and Make Your Profile Private

LinkedIn private mode is a profile viewing setting: when it is on, people whose profiles you open see "LinkedIn Member" instead of your name. It does not hide your own profile. Making your own profile more private is a separate set of settings, and LinkedIn has no single switch that turns your account private the way Instagram does.

So there are two jobs here, and most confusion comes from mixing them up:

1. Browsing other profiles privately. You want to look at a candidate, a competitor or a former colleague without your name showing up in their viewer list. That is private mode.
2. Making your own profile more private. You want less of your profile visible to search engines, strangers or people outside your network. That is your public profile, photo, connections and visibility settings.

Settings below were checked on October 14, 2026 against LinkedIn Help. Menu labels change from time to time; if a label in your account looks slightly different, the section names (Visibility, Visibility of your profile & network) are the most stable thing to look for.

Part 1: How to browse LinkedIn anonymously

The three profile viewing options

LinkedIn gives you three choices for how you appear when you view someone else's profile. The setting is called Visibility when viewing other profiles (older guides call it Profile viewing options). LinkedIn's profile viewing settings

On a narrow screen, scroll sideways to read every column.

The descriptions of what the other person sees come from LinkedIn's visibility settings page. The Basic trade-off is documented in LinkedIn's help on missing viewer history.

One point about the middle option: "private profile characteristics" is not the same as anonymous. If you are the only product manager from a small company looking at a profile, a description like "Product manager at [company]" can still point to you. If you need to stay unidentified, choose Private mode.

How to turn on private mode on desktop

1. Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
2. Select Settings & Privacy.
3. Click Visibility in the left pane.
4. Under Visibility of your profile & network, click Visibility when viewing other profiles.
5. Select Private mode (or Private profile characteristics).

These steps follow LinkedIn's instructions.

How to turn on private mode in the LinkedIn app

1. Tap your profile photo.
2. Tap Settings & Privacy.
3. Tap Visibility.
4. Under Visibility of your profile & network, tap Visibility when viewing other profiles.
5. Choose Private mode.

Switch it back the same way when you want your visits to show your name again. LinkedIn's mobile steps

What the other person sees when you view in private mode

They see a visit from "LinkedIn Member" with no name attached. LinkedIn says members cannot block private mode viewers or make them reveal their names, and that even Premium members cannot see the names of people who viewed their profile in private mode. LinkedIn's private mode explanation

A practical detail: LinkedIn notes that selecting a member's name from search suggestions counts as a profile view and may notify that member, depending on settings. If you want a visit to be private, switch on private mode before you start searching, not after you have already opened the profile. LinkedIn's profile viewing settings

The trade-off: Basic vs Premium

This is the part most people miss.

• Basic (free) account: If you browse in private mode or with private profile characteristics, you cannot see who viewed your profile. You have to choose Your name and headline to get your viewer history back. LinkedIn's missing-viewer-history help
• Premium account: You can browse in private mode and still see a list of people who viewed your profile. You still will not see the names of anyone who visited you in private mode. LinkedIn's private mode explanation

If your viewer list is the reason you are reading this, our guide to who viewed my LinkedIn profile covers how to open the list, what Basic and Premium show, and why some viewers appear anonymous.

A reasonable approach on Basic: keep your name visible by default, and switch to private mode only for the specific research session where you need it. Then switch back so your own viewer list returns.

Should you use an "anonymous LinkedIn viewer" extension?

No. Private mode is built into LinkedIn and costs nothing, so there is no reason to install a third-party "anonymous viewer" or "see who viewed you" extension. If any tool asks for your LinkedIn email and password, do not give them: your credentials belong on LinkedIn only. LinkedIn's own help says private mode viewers cannot be made to reveal their names, so a tool that claims to unmask them is promising something LinkedIn does not support. LinkedIn's private mode explanation

Part 2: How to make your LinkedIn profile private

Can you make a LinkedIn account fully private?

Not the way you can on Instagram. LinkedIn's settings let you limit who outside LinkedIn sees your profile and specific parts of what members see, but there is no single switch that hides your profile from everyone signed in to LinkedIn.

The main control, your public profile, governs what people see when they are not signed in or when they find you through search tools such as Google, Bing or DuckDuckGo. LinkedIn notes that to see your full profile, visitors may need to log in to their LinkedIn accounts. LinkedIn public profile visibility

If there is one specific person you do not want viewing your profile, LinkedIn's help notes that blocked members cannot view your profile. LinkedIn's profile viewing settings

Here is what you can control, setting by setting.

Hide your LinkedIn profile from Google and people who are not signed in

On desktop:

1. Click the Me icon, then View Profile.
2. Click the edit icon next to Public profile & URL in the right pane.
3. Switch Your profile's public visibility to Off to hide your profile from public view.

In the app: tap your profile photo, tap Settings, tap Visibility, then tap Edit your public profile under Visibility of your profile & network. LinkedIn's public profile instructions

If you would rather stay findable but share less, keep public visibility on and switch off individual sections instead. LinkedIn says some places may show a limited preview with only some of the fields you allow, and changes save automatically. LinkedIn's public profile instructions

Two things to know before you switch it off:

• Search engines are slow to catch up. LinkedIn says it can take several weeks or even months for search tools like Google, Yahoo or Bing to reflect the change, and LinkedIn does not control when they refresh. LinkedIn's public profile instructions
• Account recovery can get harder. LinkedIn notes that disabling your public profile may make it harder to recover your account if you lose access to your primary email, because it may need your public profile URL. LinkedIn public profile visibility

Turn off off-LinkedIn visibility

Your profile can also appear in approved third-party services, for example inside email integrations. To opt out, click Me, select Settings & Privacy, then under Visibility select Off-LinkedIn visibility and switch the toggle to Off. This toggle does not hide your public profile from search tools; that is the public profile setting above. LinkedIn's off-LinkedIn visibility help

Stop people finding you by email or phone number

Under Settings & Privacy > Visibility > Visibility of your profile & network, the Discoverability by email and Discoverability by phone number settings decide who can find your profile by looking up those details. Options include 1st-degree connections, 2nd-degree connections, Everyone and Nobody, though LinkedIn says options may vary. Turning these off does not stop permitted services outside LinkedIn from finding you by name and organization; for that, use Off-LinkedIn visibility below. Manage your profile's visibility on and off LinkedIn

Limit who sees your profile photo

Your profile photo is set to Anyone by default. On desktop, click Me > View Profile, click your photo, click the Visibility icon, and pick one of: 1st-degree connections only, Your network, All LinkedIn members or Anyone. Then click Save. Changing it on your profile also updates your public profile. LinkedIn's photo visibility settings

Hide your connections list

By default, your 1st-degree connections can see and browse your list of connections. To hide it, go to Me > Settings & Privacy > Visibility, click Connection visibility under Visibility of your profile & network, and switch the toggle to Off. Limits worth knowing: LinkedIn says you cannot selectively hide your list from people who hide theirs, and Sales Navigator or TeamLink users need extra steps to hide it fully. LinkedIn's connection visibility help

Update your profile without announcing it

If you are quietly job hunting, the setting that matters is Share profile updates, under Settings & Privacy > Visibility > Visibility of your LinkedIn activity. Switched off, your network is not notified about job changes, education changes and work anniversaries. It does not hide the edits themselves: LinkedIn says anyone who views your profile will see your edits as soon as you save them. LinkedIn's share profile updates help

Active status (the green dot)

In LinkedIn Messaging, a green circle on a connection's photo shows they are active. LinkedIn says this feature is on for your connections by default, and its help links to a separate article on changing your active status. Active status in LinkedIn Messaging

Quick reference: which setting does what

On a narrow screen, scroll sideways to read every column.

Private is not the same as invisible

Most people asking how to make LinkedIn private do not want to disappear. They want control over specific things: who sees a job change, whether a former employer can find them on Google, or whether a candidate notices a visit. Use the narrowest setting that solves that problem and leave the rest of your profile visible, since a profile nobody can find also cannot bring you work or job offers.

If you are tightening visibility because your profile feels unfinished rather than because you need privacy, fixing the profile may be the better move. Our LinkedIn profile optimization guide walks through each section, and the free LinkedIn profile analyzer reviews a public profile you provide and suggests changes. It cannot see private settings or reveal anyone who viewed you.

If you later want to be more visible, posting regularly is the usual way to do it. WriteHero drafts LinkedIn posts in your own voice from your past posts, which helps if writing is the part you keep putting off.