Most people set up their LinkedIn profile once and never touch the privacy settings again. That is usually a mistake, because the default visibility rules decide who sees your work history, whether recruiters can find you, and how much shows up when someone searches your name on Google.

This guide walks through what "public" and "private" actually mean on LinkedIn, what recruiters can and cannot see, and the specific settings you can change today.

What public and private mean on LinkedIn

LinkedIn does not have a single on/off switch labeled "private". Instead, your profile visibility settings work in layers. There is the public version of your profile that anyone on the internet can find, and there is the member view that logged-in LinkedIn users see. You control both separately.

The public profile is the version indexed by Google and other search engines. When someone types your name into a search bar, this is what tends to appear. You decide how much of it is exposed, from just your name and headline all the way to your full experience, education, and skills.

Inside LinkedIn, the picture is different. Connections see more than strangers by default, and some sections only show up for people in your network. So "public or private" is rarely all-or-nothing. You are really tuning a set of dials.

What recruiters can actually see

Recruiters mostly work through LinkedIn Recruiter, a paid product that behaves differently from the free version most of us use. Even if your profile looks locked down to a casual visitor, a recruiter with the right license can often see more.

Here is roughly what a recruiter can access:

• Your headline, current role, and past positions, assuming you have not hidden them
• Your location and industry, which they use for filtering searches
• Skills and endorsements listed on your profile
• Whether you have signaled that you are open to work

That last point matters. LinkedIn lets you tell recruiters you are open to new roles without broadcasting it to your entire network. You can choose the private setting so only recruiters using LinkedIn Recruiter see the badge, which keeps your current employer out of the loop. It is not a guarantee of secrecy, but it lowers the risk considerably.

If your profile is set to be invisible in search and you have hidden most sections, you are also invisible to the recruiters you might want to hear from. Privacy and discoverability pull in opposite directions.

The settings that actually control your privacy

A handful of settings do most of the work. Open Settings & Privacy, then look under "Visibility". These are the ones worth checking.

1. Public profile settings. This page lets you toggle each section of your public profile on or off, and decide whether search engines can index the page at all. If you want to disappear from Google, turn off "Your profile's public visibility".
2. Profile viewing options. This controls what others see when you look at their profile. You can appear as your full name, as anonymous characteristics like "someone in the tech industry", or fully private. Note the trade-off: go anonymous and you lose the ability to see who viewed you.
3. Who can see your connections. By default your connections can browse your connection list. Switch this to "Only you" if you would rather keep your network private.
4. Open to work visibility. Choose between showing the green banner to everyone or limiting it to recruiters only.
5. Activity broadcasts. When you update your profile, LinkedIn can notify your network. Turn this off before a job search so you are not announcing every edit to colleagues.

None of these are buried, but they are spread across different menus, which is why so many people never adjust them.

How to choose the right setup for your situation

The right configuration depends on what you are trying to do. A few common cases:

Actively job hunting, still employed. Keep your public profile findable so recruiters and their tools can reach you, turn on "open to work" for recruiters only, and switch off activity broadcasts so your current team does not notice the flurry of updates.

Happy in your role but building a reputation. A fully public profile helps here. You want your posts, articles, and experience visible so people in your field can find you.

Cautious about privacy. Trim your public profile down to your name and headline, hide your connection list, and browse in private mode. You will show up less in search, and that is the intended result.

Whatever you choose, keep a clean, current copy of your profile somewhere you control. If you ever want to turn that LinkedIn history into a polished CV, a tool like Postulit can pull the structured data and format it for you, which saves rebuilding everything by hand.

Common mistakes to avoid

People tend to trip over the same few things. Going fully anonymous while browsing, then wondering why the "who viewed your profile" feature shows nothing. Hiding every section, then being surprised recruiters never reach out. Leaving activity broadcasts on during a quiet job search, so a manager sees a wave of edits.

The other frequent error is assuming private means invisible to everyone. LinkedIn Recruiter and, in some cases, the platform's own search can still surface parts of your profile. Treat "private" as "less visible", not "gone".

A concrete takeaway

Spend ten minutes today in Settings & Privacy. Check three things in order: your public profile visibility, your "open to work" setting, and your activity broadcasts. Match them to your current goal, whether that is being found, staying quiet, or somewhere in between. Set a reminder to review them again whenever your situation changes, because the settings that fit a passive month rarely fit an active job search.