LinkedIn Settings and Privacy

July 31, 2020

Managing your settings effectively will impact the perception people have of you and your brand. The settings will also keep your account safer. It’s a good idea to have an understanding of the most important LinkedIn settings.

Find the Settings and Privacy tab for the majority of your personal settings.

At the top of the Settings page, you will find the number of connections, the date you became a LinkedIn member, and the list of any premium accounts

There are four main categories within the LinkedIn Settings tab.

Section	Examples of functions
Account	Password, e-mail, and data archive
Privacy Ads	Visibility, viewing options, ranking, and blocking General preferences and data
Communications	E-mail, invitations, and group messages

I suggest you evaluate each setting to decide your best option. I have included many (but not all) of the settings with my recommendations.

Sandra’s Recommendations on LinkedIn Settings

Name of setting	Where to find	Recommendation from Sandra
E-mail addresses	Account tab under Settings	Always use more than one e-mail address. Select your primary address.
Phone numbers	Account tab under Settings	Add your phone numbers and select primary.
Change password	Account tab under Settings	Change every quarter.
Language	Account tab under Settings	Change as appropriate.
Name, location, and industry	Account tab under Settings or from Edit Profile	Update as appropriate.
Where you’re signed in	Account tab under Settings	Check this periodically.
Autoplay videos	Account tab under Settings	Yes.
Showing profile photo	Account tab under Settings	Everyone.
Twitter	Account tab under Settings	Add your Twitter handle so you can post status updates to the public and your Twitter account.
Hibernating, merging, or closing account	Account tab under Settings	Use only when necessary.
Edit your public profile Who can see your email address	Privacy tab under Settings. Find the profile list on the right side. Privacy tab under Settings	Allow search engines to find your profile. Make all sections visible to everyone. Select anyone on LinkedIn.
Who can see your connections	Privacy tab under Settings	Keep open to all of your connections. This is a best practice. If you are worried, I suggest you disconnect from anyone that concerns you.
Story viewing options Manage active status	Privacy tab under Settings Privacy tab under Settings	Select your name and headline. Select all LinkedIn members.
Viewers of this profile also viewed (displays other people similar to you on the right side of your profile)	Privacy tab under Settings	Turn off if showing your competitors. Turn on if displaying your coworkers.
Share job changes, education changes, and work anniversaries from profile (notify your network about a profile change)	Privacy tab under Settings	Usually you want to keep this on. However, if you are doing a major profile overhaul, it is best to turn it off.
Profile viewing options (people may see that you have viewed their profile)	Privacy tab under Settings	Full profile. Change this as needed. Usually best to show your full profile most of the time.
Notify your connections when you are in the news Mentions or tags by others	Privacy tab under Settings Privacy tab under Settings	Yes. Select your personal preference.
Followers (choose who can follow you and see your updates) Who can see your last name	Privacy tab under Settings Privacy tab under Settings	Everyone. Show your full name.
Representing your organization and interests Birthday option	Privacy tab under Settings Contact info section	Yes. This is a personal preference.
Two-step verification	Account tab under Settings	Yes.
*** Many additional settings for job search, data privacy, blocking, hiding, and security	Privacy tab under Settings	Review and select if appropriate.
Network communications E-mail	Communications tab under Settings Communications tab under Settings	Select your personal preferences. Make your selections for on, off, frequency and digests.
Invitations to connect Invitations from your network	Communications tab under Settings Communications tab under Settings	Select everyone. Keep on.
Messages from members and Open Profile*	Communications tab under Settings	Select your preferred methods.
Group settings	Communications tab under Settings and in each individual group	Select your personal preferences.
Disconnect	User profile or My Network tab. The best place to disconnect is from the My Network tab.	Disconnect from anyone you do not trust.

*Open profile – allows premium users to turn on and allow anyone to send a message for free.