What is LinkedIn Anonymous Mode?

LinkedIn Anonymous Mode is the unofficial name for the most restrictive of LinkedIn's three profile-viewing settings. Officially called 'Private mode', it makes you appear as 'Anonymous LinkedIn Member' in the viewer lists of profiles you visit — no name, no photo, no headline, no industry.

What is LinkedIn Private Mode?

LinkedIn Private Mode is the official name for the same setting most people call Anonymous Mode. They are the same feature. LinkedIn renamed it 'Private mode' in 2018 to avoid confusion with anonymous internet trolling, but the user community still calls it Anonymous Mode in casual writing.

Does LinkedIn Anonymous Mode hide me from Premium users?

Mostly. LinkedIn Premium subscribers can see partial demographics on anonymous viewers — typically industry, company size, and rough region — but they will not see your name or photo. If you need to be fully invisible (including to Premium users), Anonymous Mode alone is not enough. A LinkedIn Profile Viewer that doesn't sign into LinkedIn at all leaves no demographic trail.

What's the catch with LinkedIn Private Mode?

When you enable Private Mode, LinkedIn also hides who is viewing YOUR profile. You become anonymous to others, and others become anonymous to you. The 'Who viewed your profile' counter resets and you stop seeing detailed viewer info while it's on. For most people this trade-off is too steep, which is why third-party LinkedIn Profile Viewers have become more popular for one-off discreet research.

How do I turn on LinkedIn Anonymous Mode?

Go to Settings & Privacy → Visibility → Visibility of your profile & network → Profile viewing options. Pick 'Private mode'. The change takes effect immediately. To turn it off, return to the same screen and select your name and headline again.

Does LinkedIn Anonymous Mode hide me from search results?

No. Anonymous Mode only affects how you appear in viewer lists when you visit other people's profiles. It does not change how your own profile appears in search results, in feeds, or to people who look up your profile directly.

LinkedIn Anonymous Mode vs Private Mode: What's the Difference?

Short answer: LinkedIn Anonymous Mode and LinkedIn Private Mode are the same setting under two different names.The real distinction is between the three available privacy levels in LinkedIn's profile viewing options — your full name and headline, private profile characteristics, and the fully anonymous option that the community calls Anonymous Mode and LinkedIn calls Private Mode.

Why the names are confusing

LinkedIn launched the feature as Anonymous Mode years ago. In 2018 they renamed it to Private modeto avoid the negative connotation of "anonymous," but the rename never fully took. Most blog posts, Reddit threads, and casual conversation still call it Anonymous Mode. LinkedIn's own help center uses both terms in different places.

The setting itself has not changed. Whether you call it Anonymous Mode or Private Mode, you're talking about the same option under Settings & Privacy → Visibility → Profile viewing options.

The three profile viewing options, explained

LinkedIn gives you three levels of visibility when you view someone else's profile. They're the same three options for everyone, free or Premium.

Option 1: Your name and headline

The default. When you view someone's profile, they see your full name, profile photo, headline, and the time of your visit in their Who viewed your profile dashboard. You see the same detail when other people view you.

This is what most people are on, and it's why LinkedIn's viewer-tracking feature works at all. If everyone turned on Anonymous Mode, the feature would collapse.

Option 2: Private profile characteristics

The middle option. When you view someone, they see only your job title, industry, and company size — no name, no photo, no headline. You also lose the detailed view on your end and only see partial info about your viewers.

This is the rarest setting in practice. People either want full transparency (Option 1) or full invisibility (Option 3). The middle ground doesn't solve enough of either problem to be popular.

Option 3: Private Mode (also known as Anonymous Mode)

The most restrictive. You appear as "Anonymous LinkedIn Member" with no name, photo, headline, or demographic info to free users. Premium subscribers see a sliver more — typically industry, company size, and rough region — but never your name.

This is the option people mean when they say Anonymous Mode or Private Mode. They are the same setting.

The catch nobody mentions

Here's what LinkedIn buries in the fine print: turning on Private Mode resets your own "Who viewed your profile" data and prevents you from seeing detailed viewer info while it's on.

You become anonymous to others, but others also become anonymous to you. For most people this trade-off is too steep. If you're actively job hunting and you want to see when recruiters view you, you can't also be invisible to recruiters at the same time. You have to pick one.

This is the single biggest reason third-party tools like an anonymous LinkedIn Profile Viewer exist. They let you do one-off discreet lookups without flipping the account-wide setting that costs you your viewer insights.

When to use Anonymous Mode (Private Mode)

Long-term competitive research. You're mapping out a competitor over weeks. Anonymous Mode is fine because you don't need viewer insights for now.
You don't care about who views you. Some people just don't check the viewer dashboard. If that's you, the trade-off costs you nothing.
Recruiter / sourcing work. Recruiters scout candidates all day. Anonymous Mode keeps the candidate from seeing the recruiter's name. (They turn it off when they're ready to message.)

When NOT to use Anonymous Mode

You're job hunting. You want to know which recruiters viewed you. Anonymous Mode disables that.
You're looking up someone once. Switching account-wide settings for a single lookup is overkill. A LinkedIn Profile Viewer handles one-offs cleanly.
You're a creator or freelancer. You want viewer signals — they often correlate with inbound interest. Anonymous Mode kills that.

How Anonymous Mode compares to other privacy methods

Method	Hides you?	Costs you viewer insights?
Anonymous Mode (Private Mode)	Yes (mostly — Premium sees demographics)	Yes
Log out and visit profile	Yes (no session = no attribution)	No (only affects that visit)
Free LinkedIn Profile Viewer	Yes (no session at all)	No
Incognito + logged in	No (Incognito only blocks cookies, not session)	No (but doesn't hide you either)

How to turn Anonymous Mode on or off

Click your profile photo (top-right) and pick Settings & Privacy.
Open Visibility in the left sidebar.
Click Profile viewing options.
Pick the option you want — your name and headline, private profile characteristics, or Private mode.

Changes take effect immediately. You can toggle as often as you want. The only caveat: each time you switch off Private Mode and back on, the 90-day viewer history resets.

The bottom line

LinkedIn Anonymous Mode and Private Mode are the same setting under two names. It's the right tool when you want long-term invisibility and don't care about your own viewer insights. It's the wrong tool for one-off discreet research — for that, a free LinkedIn Profile Viewer gets you the public profile data without flipping any account settings or losing your viewer dashboard.

You can paste any LinkedIn URL into our LinkedIn Profile Viewer and see the public profile in seconds — no account, no toggle, no trade-off.