Back to Home
LinkedIn Privacy Summary
Social Media
high Risk
Professional networking platform that helps users create profiles, find jobs, connect with colleagues, access learning, and receive personalized job and content recommendations.
Quick Summary
- What They Collect: Profile, contacts, device/browser data, location, payment and inferred interests (job, seniority).
- How They Use & Share It: Personalization, ads, job recommendations; shared with affiliates, service providers, advertisers and employers.
- Your Rights: Access, correct, delete data, object/limit processing, withdraw consent, ad/cookie controls and account deletion options.
Why You Should Care About LinkedIn's Privacy Practices
- LinkedIn collects high-risk professional and inferred data (work history, salary bracket, inferred age/gender) used for profiling and hiring decisions.
- Profiling and targeted ads can influence job and career opportunities; automated inferences may produce inaccurate or sensitive categorizations.
- LinkedIn is integrated into hiring and daily professional life, affecting millions of users and recruiters globally; data sharing with affiliates amplifies reach.
- Account closure does not immediately remove all traces; retained or shared copies and aggregated insights can persist and affect privacy or future profiling.
Privacy Highlights
What They Collect
- Account information (name, email, mobile number, password, general location)
- User content and files (posts, messages, uploads, resumes, attachments)
- Demographic information (education, job history, inferred age, gender, salary bracket)
- Feedback data (survey and poll responses)
- Payment information (credit card and billing for premium services)
How They Share Data
- Business affiliates (LinkedIn Affiliates, Microsoft)
- Service providers (payments, fraud prevention, analytics, customer support vendors)
- Third-party partners (site integrators, plugins, social networks)
- Advertising partners and publishers
Data Retention
Keeps most personal data while your account is active; generally deletes closed-account data within ~30 days but retains data as necessary for legal obligations, security, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, or to enforce agreements, and may keep de-identified/aggregated data longer.
Your Rights
- Access data (request a copy; machine-readable export available)
- Rectify data (edit or correct profile data)
- Erase or limit processing (delete data, request limitation or objection)
- Object to processing (including certain legitimate-interest processing)
Detailed Analysis
Concerning Practices
- Shares data with many categories of third parties including affiliates and advertising partners
- Collects extensive personal and inferred data for profiling (job, age, gender, interests)
- Transfers data across borders and processes data globally
- Retains most personal data while account is active and retains some data after account closure
- Uses automated inferences and profiling for ads, job recommendations and product features
- Some mandatory service communications cannot be opted out of; non-personalized ads cannot be opted out
Personal Data Types
Account information (name, email, mobile number, password, general location)User content and files (posts, messages, uploads, resumes, attachments)Demographic information (education, job history, inferred age, gender, salary bracket)Feedback data (survey and poll responses)Payment information (credit card and billing for premium services)Profile information (photo, headline, skills, endorsements, verifications)Sales and marketing data (profiles exported to premium customers, social selling index)Support data (customer support requests and related communications)Browser information (IP address, operating system, browser, device identifiers)Geolocation information (device-based location, GPS if you opt in)Service usage information (logs, search history, feature usage, recommendations)Website usage data (cookies, pixels, ad tags, cookie IDs and similar technologies)Information from other users (contacts uploaded by others, mentions, public posts about you)Publicly available information (news, public profiles and other public data)
Tracking Methods
Essential cookiesAnalytics cookiesAdvertising cookiesSocial media cookies / pluginsPixel tags (pixels)Ad tagsDevice identifiers and hashed IDs
Third Parties
Business affiliates (LinkedIn Affiliates, Microsoft)Service providers (payments, fraud prevention, analytics, customer support vendors)Third-party partners (site integrators, plugins, social networks)Advertising partners and publishersGovernment authorities and law enforcement (legal disclosures and compliance)
User Controls
Access data (request a copy; machine-readable export available)Rectify data (edit or correct profile data)Erase or limit processing (delete data, request limitation or objection)Object to processing (including certain legitimate-interest processing)Data portability (download or export data provided)Withdraw consent (where processing is based on consent)Opt-out of certain marketing/advertising uses (ad settings and cookie controls)Delete account (account closure with some retention exceptions)
Frequently Asked Questions About LinkedIn
Want updates when LinkedIn's privacy policy changes?
We'll notify you when there are significant changes to their data practices.
Legal Disclaimer
This analysis is provided for informational purposes only and should not be used as legal advice. Consult with legal professionals for matters requiring legal guidance.