Ask HN: Check linkedin profile without letting people know? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Check linkedin profile without letting people know?

4 pointseridal12 comments

I end up not looking for people just to avoid letting them know I searched for them.

is it possible to disable such feature?

Why do you want to avoid letting others know that you looked at their profile? I actually made a few business relationships just because someone looked at my profile and I looked at theirs or vice-versa and one of us reached out to the other. There is no way to form a relationship even if there is potential for a mutually beneficial partnership if you keep yourself anonymous because other person wouldn't know who looked at them.

If like most of HN, you are interested in startups and entrepreneurship, I will suggest you do not anonymize your profile. As an example, just a couple of months ago, I viewed profile of a CMU faculty who previously sold a few startups in the same industry vertical as my personal project. He noticed that I checked his profile, reviewed my profile and personal project and reached out to me. We exchanged a few emails and talked on the phone once. Recently, he brought me a very warm lead that could potentially become a very profitable customer for my personal project. And, all this wouldn't have happened if I kept my profile private.

Yes, there is a privacy setting on your account that lets you check out someone anonymously. In return for using this feature you can't see who is looking at your profile either. I'm not sure if those who have paid LinkedIn accounts can't tell if you are viewing their profile or not. (you can also just log out if the profile you are interested in is public.)

wow incredibly creepy opt-outs all over the place!!

edit: I have changed more than 10 creepy privacy preferences.. and that was just at a glance

Paid account you can disable it and still see who viewed your profile

I have the "business" level account btw, i dont know about the rest

what's worth paying for that? do you work as recruiter or the like?

Mostly the ability to message anyone and view who is viewing me to know when to contact them. I am running a startup and anyway that I can network is great.. linkedin has been the biggest help in that aspect

Linkedin is becoming a game company. If you pay some money, you can view others' profile anonymously. If you pay some money, then others won't view your profile anonymously. If you pay more money, you can view others' profile anonymously, even they are paid users, if....

I hadn't really thought of Linkedin as a company that charges money for privacy before, but I think this is a correct interpretation.

I usually Google them and click CACHED version (But I think Linkedin got rid of this) so I simply open incognito and go to the URL. Works most of the time.

Right click, open in incognito window. And hope that the profile is public

use another browser where you aren't logged in. It does work, I do it.

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