The professional network that sells you to recruiters and advertisers
⚠️ Privacy case
LinkedIn uses your data for advertising and sells access to your profile to recruiters through LinkedIn Recruiter. In 2021, data on 700 million LinkedIn users was scraped and posted for sale. LinkedIn has also been caught tracking users across the web via cookies and sharing data with advertising partners. In 2023, LinkedIn was fined by the EU for violations of GDPR's data use restrictions.
What it is
LinkedIn is Microsoft's professional social network with 1 billion members. It is the dominant platform for professional networking, job searching, and B2B content. Acquired by Microsoft in 2016 for $26.2 billion. LinkedIn collects your professional history, connections, messages, content engagement, and browsing behavior for advertising and recruiter targeting.
What you lose
- Professional visibility (recruiters actively search LinkedIn)
- Network connections you've built over years
- Direct messages with professional contacts
- Job listings (LinkedIn has the largest job board for white-collar roles)
- Content distribution if you publish on LinkedIn
Honest assessment
LinkedIn is one of the harder professional services to leave entirely because it's where jobs are and where professional identity is increasingly established. If you're job searching or in a field where LinkedIn is standard, departure is a real professional cost. The most realistic path for most professionals is not leaving LinkedIn but reducing its data collection: audit your data, lock down your settings, stop letting LinkedIn track you across the web.
If you're not ready to leave entirely
- Settings → Data privacy → Manage your data and activity → review all settings
- Turn off LinkedIn's ability to use your data for third-party advertising
- Turn off "Share data for research and surveys"
- Clear your LinkedIn activity history
- Use LinkedIn only when logged in, not via web tracking
- Consider a LinkedIn Premium cancellation if you're paying — basic is sufficient for most users
Data to export first
- LinkedIn → Settings → Data privacy → Get a copy of your data
- Select all data including connections, messages, posts, job applications
- Download takes up to 24 hours to prepare
Alternatives
- Personal website / portfolio — The most durable professional presence you can build. SEO-indexed, fully controlled, no algorithm. Pair with an email list for the people who matter most.
- GitHub (for technical professionals) — Your commit history is a portfolio. Many technical hiring decisions are made based on GitHub profiles alone.
- AngelList / Wellfound — Startup-focused job platform. Alternative to LinkedIn for startup ecosystem jobs.
- Mastodon / professional communities — Some professions have strong Mastodon communities (academics, journalists, technologists).
Migration steps
- Download your full data archive (connections, messages, endorsements)
- Export connections as CSV to keep your professional contact list
- Audit your LinkedIn privacy settings (many data-sharing options are on by default)
- Build or improve your personal website as an alternative professional presence
- {'For job searching': 'try Indeed, Wellfound, or direct company career pages in parallel'}
- If you decide to leave, set profile to private first, then delete account at linkedin.com/help