How to Secure Your LinkedIn Account: Privacy, Safety & Deletion Guide

LinkedIn has over 900 million members and is the largest professional networking platform in the world. Because profiles contain employment history, education, skills, and professional connections, LinkedIn accounts are high-value targets for scammers, data harvesters, and social engineers.

Set a Strong Password

1. Go to Settings > Sign In & Security > Change Password
2. Create a password at least 12 characters long
3. Use a mix of uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and special characters
4. Do not use any information from your LinkedIn profile (company name, job title, etc.) in your password

Use our Password Generator to create a strong, unique password.

Enable Two-Step Verification

1. Go to Settings > Sign In & Security > Two-Step Verification
2. Click Turn On
3. Choose your method:
   • Authenticator app (recommended) — Google Authenticator, Authy, or similar
   • Phone number (SMS) — receive a code via text
4. Follow the setup prompts
5. Save your recovery codes securely

Review Active Sessions

1. Go to Settings > Sign In & Security > Where You're Signed In
2. Review all active sessions
3. Sign out of any device or location you do not recognize
4. If you see suspicious activity, change your password immediately

Control Your Profile Visibility

Public Profile

1. Go to Settings > Visibility > Edit Your Public Profile
2. Toggle off Your profile's public visibility to hide your profile from search engines
3. Or selectively choose which sections are visible (photo, headline, summary, experience, etc.)

Profile Viewing Options

1. Under Visibility > Profile Viewing Options, choose how you appear when viewing other profiles:
   • Your name and headline — full transparency
   • Private profile characteristics — shows industry and title but not your name
   • Private mode — completely anonymous browsing

Connections

1. Under Visibility > Who can see your connections, set to Only you
2. This prevents others from browsing your connection list (a common tactic in social engineering)

Active Status

1. Under Visibility > Manage Active Status, turn off to hide when you are online

Email and Phone

1. Under Visibility > Who can see your email address, set to Only visible to me or 1st-degree connections
2. Under Visibility > Who can see your phone number, set to Only visible to me

Manage Data Privacy and Advertising

Ad Targeting

1. Go to Settings > Advertising Data
2. Turn off:
   • Profile data for ad personalization
   • Interest categories
   • Data collected on third-party sites
   • Connections data for ad personalization

Data Sharing

1. Go to Settings > Data Privacy
2. Review and turn off:
   • Get more relevant search results using your activity — turn off for less tracking
   • Share job activity with recruiters — disable if you do not want recruiters seeing you viewed their jobs

Protect Against LinkedIn Scams

LinkedIn scams are increasing rapidly. Here is how to protect yourself:

1. Verify connection requests. Do not accept requests from people you do not know. Check their profile for signs of a fake account: stock photo, minimal connections, no activity, or a recently created profile.
2. Be wary of job offers that seem too good to be true. Legitimate recruiters will not ask for payment, personal financial information, or your Social Security number before an interview.
3. Do not click links in LinkedIn messages from people you do not know. Phishing links are common. Use our AI Scam Checker to verify suspicious links.
4. Watch for romance and investment scams. Scammers build professional-looking profiles to gain trust, then push cryptocurrency investments or romantic connections.
5. Report suspicious profiles and messages using the three-dot menu on any profile or message.

Download Your LinkedIn Data

1. Go to Settings > Data Privacy > Get a Copy of Your Data
2. Choose Want something in particular? to select specific categories, or select Download larger data archive
3. Click Request Archive
4. LinkedIn will email you when the file is ready (usually within 24 hours)
5. Download the ZIP file from the provided link
6. Save it in a secure location

The archive includes your profile data, connections, messages, skills, endorsements, and more.

How to Close Your LinkedIn Account

Before closing:

• Download your data archive
• Save any important messages or connections
• Remove LinkedIn Login from any apps that use it
• If you have LinkedIn Premium, cancel your subscription first

To close your account:

1. Go to Settings > Account Management > Close Account
2. Select a reason for closing
3. Click Next
4. Review the consequences and click Close Account
5. Enter your password to confirm

LinkedIn will deactivate your account immediately. Your profile, connections, messages, and all associated content are removed. LinkedIn states the process takes up to 30 days to complete fully.

After closing your account, use our GCR Data Shield to scan data broker sites for your professional information. LinkedIn data frequently appears on people-search and background-check sites.