As with any social network site, LinkedIn has privacy and security issues. In your LinkedIn profile, you’ve likely divulged important personal information, such as where you’ve worked, where you went to school, and various projects you’ve participated in. If this information got into the wrong hands, you’re at risk for identity theft, fraud, corporate espionage, and more. Here are some simple tips to keep your LinkedIn experience safe and productive.
Change Your LinkedIn Password Regularly
Like other social networks, LinkedIn has been affected by security breaches in the past. To be safe, change your LinkedIn password regularly. If you haven’t logged in to LinkedIn in a while, the site may force you to change your password the next time you log in. To change your LinkedIn password:
Limit Contact Information in Your Profile
Business relationships are less personal than those you have on Facebook. While you may be eager to connect with potential contacts who could help your career, it’s important to maintain privacy. For example, your address and phone number shouldn’t be publicly visible. To remove your contact info from your LinkedIn public profile:
Turn on LinkedIn’s Secure Browsing Mode
LinkedIn offers secure browsing and this feature is a must, especially if you access LinkedIn from coffee shops, airports, or anywhere else with public Wi-Fi hotspots. To enable LinkedIn’s secure browsing mode:
Limit Information in Your Public Profile
Even though you might not have contact information in your public profile, there’s a lot of other potentially sensitive information that hackers could learn. Listing the companies you work for or have worked for might help hackers with social engineering attacks against those companies. Listing the college you currently attend in the education section could give someone information about your current whereabouts. Here’s how to edit your public profile:
Review Your Privacy Control Settings
If you aren’t comfortable with people seeing your activity feed or knowing that you’ve viewed their profile, turn on LinkedIn’s private viewing mode.
