Janice Learmond-Criqui
I like LinkedIn. I use it, I see its value, and I believe it remains one of the most useful platforms for professional networking. But there is one thing that really annoys me. LinkedIn wants me to pay to properly see who viewed my profile. Why?
Someone has deliberately visited my professional profile. They have looked at my photograph, employment history, qualifications, experience, connections, posts and whatever other information I have chosen to make available. Yet when I try to see who they are, I may be presented with limited information unless I upgrade. Perhaps I am missing something, but that does not sit comfortably with me. If someone can see me, why can’t I see them?
I understand that LinkedIn is a business and that premium features are part of its revenue model. I have no difficulty with companies charging for enhanced services. But I think we should distinguish between a premium convenience and a transparency feature. Knowing who is looking at your professional identity feels increasingly like the latter. This becomes particularly important because scammers and fraudsters also use professional networking platforms.
LinkedIn profiles can contain a tremendous amount of useful information about us: where we work, where we previously worked, our seniority, business interests, professional relationships, recent achievements and sometimes even where we are travelling or which events we plan to attend. That information can help a legitimate recruiter decide whether to approach you. Unfortunately, it can also help someone with less honourable intentions decide whether you are worth approaching.
Scammers do their homework too. The days of the badly written email announcing that you have inherited US$20 million from a relative you never knew existed are not the only scams we need to worry about. Fraud has become more sophisticated.
A scammer can research someone before making contact. They can learn the language of your industry, identify colleagues, observe what you post and potentially use publicly available professional information to make an approach appear credible. That is why I find the idea of obscuring profile viewers troubling.
If several people are suddenly viewing my profile, I would like to know who they are. Maybe it is a recruiter; someone read one of my articles; a potential client is researching my background; or maybe someone is considering inviting me to speak at an event. Wonderful.
But if an unfamiliar or suspicious account repeatedly examines my profile and subsequently sends me a message, connection request or business proposition, I would also like the opportunity to make that connection. Context matters. Privacy matters too. Now, there is another side to this argument.
People have legitimate reasons for wanting privacy when browsing LinkedIn. Recruiters may be researching potential candidates. Executives may be conducting confidential searches. Individuals may simply prefer not to announce every profile they visit. I understand that. But LinkedIn must balance the privacy of the viewer with the security and transparency interests of the person being viewed, and that balance becomes more important as online impersonation, social engineering and increasingly sophisticated scams become part of everyday digital life.
Security should not feel like an upgrade. Charge me for advanced analytics. Charge me for enhanced search tools. Charge me for additional messaging capabilities, recruitment features, business intelligence and all the other bells and whistles that make Premium worthwhile. That is business. But basic transparency around who is accessing my professional profile?
I am not convinced that should sit so comfortably behind a subscription. Perhaps LinkedIn should reconsider exactly where the line between Premium features and user protection should be drawn. Because LinkedIn is no longer simply an online résumé. For many of us, it is our professional identity. It tells the world who we are, what we do, where we have worked, what we know and sometimes who we know. And if someone is taking a particular interest in that identity, I think we should be able to know a little more about who is standing on the other side of the digital window.
After all, professional networking is built on trust. Transparency should be part of that trust. Not something we have to pay extra to receive. What do you think? Should LinkedIn allow everyone to see exactly who has viewed their profile, or is that information reasonably a Premium feature?
