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Comment by not1ofU | Hacker News Reader

There is an option from linkedin to view your public profile - go to your profile and there is a link labled "Public profile & URL" in the top right corner. I believe it shows a view from perspective of non-logged user, however, the visibility options with in the profile are decent enough (even if they do 'update' from time to time). There are options Public(everyone), linkedin users, your connections, only you. I am no fan of linkedin, but all of these socials "require" (not really, but its good practise) the user to check these things on first setup and periodically just in case of 'updates'.

Although thank you for posting, I never thought to view my profile from a person that I am not connected withs POV.

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There's no way to hide your work history, education, recommendations or certifications from any logged-in user.

I have toggles for all of these things. In fact, you can go more granular and select whether you want current and/or past experience as well as the details or just the summaries.

On the Public Profile settings, this is all under Edit Visibility on the right side.

I have public profile visibility set to off, have had it for years. I'm pretty sure those settings just change how you look to people who are NOT logged in.

As you found out, I dont think LinkedIn offers controls to restrict what logged in users can view.

I think they used to, but they slowly removed those privacy-respecting features when they had pressure to grow aggressively (like Facebook).

IIRC, I think it started around when they became a public company and the stock was underperforming.

Isn't the whole purpose of LinkedIn to show that to potential employers/business connections?

It's kinda like paying for a billboard and then complaining that people actually see the billboard. That's the point.

If people seeing your work history is a security risk for you, don't sign up for LinkedIn to begin with or make up fake details.

I wonder if a prospective employer views your LI page, sees falsified information, and having made a positive hiring decision based mostly on that, terminates and sues you for misrepresentation.

Is lying on LI akin to lying on your résumé, or is it more like lying on Facebook?

>Is lying on LI akin to lying on your résumé

If you've never interacted with the company on linked in, not even remotely.

Okay so you realize that recruiters and hiring managers use LI all the time, right? That they have paid accounts that can power-search candidates without ever having been sent a résumé or an application, that they can find prospective hires and then reach out to them right away with a connection request or a DM?

So if I've never interacted with 99% of companies and I put some really good whoppers on my profile, and then one of those strangers finds me exactly because of what I put in my LI profile, and then they reach out to me asking for an interview, what's the etiquette on that?

Should I delete/revise the lying liar bullshit immediately? Should I let it ride and tell the HM privately? Should I just let them believe it until I get hired?

I found out about 23 years ago that it's actually not a good idea to lie on social media, even about something trivial. Because you start needing to keep track of how you lied, and who you lied to, to keep the stories straight. And eventually you're the one trapped in a web of lies and everyone says "I told you so."

Why not just fill out your LI profile truthfully in the first place? Is there a downside to that?

There's clearly sufficient demand for them to have settings to lock the profile down from search engines, and non-logged in users. I'd wager that most users who set the privacy settings (heck look at this post) don't realize that random strangers with zero professional interest can see enough detail to cause serious harm if they wanted.

Well, the question is, whether it's due to demand or to lock-out scrapers and forcing users to register so they can monopolize the data better?

There is. You need to go to settings and then privacy. It is a whole bunch of toggles over half a dozen pages but it is all there.

I'd recommend that you actually try that, and then view it with a different logged-in profile. It's all still visible.

Especially if you pay for LinkedIn - basically gives you God mode to view profiles and meta data.

If we're not a connexion, can you see anything on my profile besides name, city, current job?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/xyz-xyz

EDIT: link redacted.

<REDACTED. I think you’ve seen that I provided enough>

It’s all there (I’m trying to not give away too much, we’re not connections, but I can see your education and your work history and your endorsements, let me know if you want more proof).

EDIT: looks like you updated the link. ~Let me know if you want me to delete the info I found.~

That is very creepy.

So the privacy settings they have are only valid for not logged in people?

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