LinkedIn Settings to Disable

I recently saw this post on LinkedIn by Jamey Harvey, CEO of Agilian, where he brought up one of LinkedIn's obscure settings. Given that I just recently posted on another AI data sharing setting on LinkedIn, I figured I'd go through them all and suggest what to disable.

Note: On the desktop version the menu option is "Settings & Privacy" and on the mobile app it's "Settings".

Setting: Data for Generative AI Improvement (set to off)

Setting this to off prevents LinkedIn from using your data and/or content to train their generative AI models going forward. This is new territory and they claim it's to help in future personalized experiences. The drawback is that it's irreversible, and there is risk of unintended reuse and lack of attribution/credit to the content owner (you).

• Me → Settings → Data privacy → Data for Generative AI Improvement → Off

Setting: Political feed preferences (set to off)

Disable this setting in order not to see political content in your feed.

• Me → Settings → Account preferences → Feed preferences → Off

Setting: Social, Economic & Workplace Research (set to off)

Set this to off to stop LinkedIn from sharing your public data with 3rd party researchers. It's unclear whether this data is de-identified, but some of it is definitely used to enable the assessment of the safety and legal compliance of LinkedIn's services.

• Me → Settings → Data privacy → Social, economic & workplace research → Off

Setting: Personalized Ads / Ad Preferences (set to off)

Disabling these limits how much LinkedIn tailors ads to your data and stops some tracking and targeting. When on, this data is shared with LinkedIn's affiliates and select partners for advertising purposes.

• Me → Settings → Advertising data → Off LinkedIn data → Off (for everything)

Setting: Research invites (set to off)

By setting to off, 3rd party partners will not send invitations to participate in surveys or market research.

• Me → Settings → Data privacy → Research invites → Off

Setting: LinkedIn promotions (set to off)

Disabling this prevents personalized promotions of LinkedIn's own products based on your activity and profile. If you haven't signed up for a paid LinkedIn product in the last 10 years, it probably doesn't make much sense to keep this on.

• Me → Settings → Data privacy → LinkedIn promotions → Off to both

Setting: Messaging suggestions (set to off)

Setting to off prevents LinkedIn from using machine learning to recognize patterns in your messages to show you suggestions.

• Me → Settings → Data privacy → Messaging suggestions → Off

Setting: Microsoft Word (set to off)

"Should we allow Microsoft Word to display your work experience descriptions from your profile in Resume Assistant?" What does this even mean? I set this to off until I know what it exactly does.

• Me → Settings → Data privacy → Microsoft Word → Off

Setting: Represent company (set to off)

If set to off, your information will not show up on your employer's company page. Additionally, LinkedIn will not share public events you are attending or a company you follow or have interacted with on LinkedIn.

• Me → Settings → Visibility → Represent company → Off

Setting: Two-Step Authentication (set to on)

Enables two-factor authentication. The only setting here you should turn on.

• Me → Settings → Sign in & security → Two-factor authentication → On

Setting: Device / Session Management / Logout (log out unknown sessions)

Ensures no unknown device remains logged in which may lead to unintentional leak or exposure of your data on unmanaged devices.

• Me → Settings → Sign in & security → Devices that remember your password → log out unfamiliar sessions

There are other options related to privacy and sharing, but I feel that disabling them takes away from the value of LinkedIn. After all, a certain amount of sharing is necessary to engage and connect with your peers.

For example:

• Permitted Services – may be necessary to connect from other 3rd party applications that you authorize
• Profile Viewing Options – lets you browse profiles anonymously, but it results in viewers of your profile also being anonymous
• Connections Visibility – restricts others from seeing your connections list
• Profile Discovery via Email/Phone – stops people from finding your profile via your email address or phone number
• Visibility of Your LinkedIn Activity – prevents alerts to your network when you edit your profile, change job, etc.

This post was written in October 2025 and these settings will likely change over the coming years, with some dropping and others added. Lastly, keep in mind that LinkedIn is not the only service that has these types of settings so although a bit burdensome, it's always best to go through all settings in the online applications or services you sign up for.

Good luck!