LinkedIn settings to disable
I recently saw this post on LinkedIn from James Harvey, CEO of Agilian, where he brought up one of LinkedIn's obscure settings. Given that I recently posted on another AI setting within LinkedIn, I figured I'd go through all settings on LinkedIn that I suggest disabling.
Setting: Data for Generative AI Improvement (set to off)
Setting this to off prevents LinkedIn from using your data and/or content to train generative AI models going forward. This is new territory and is claimed to help in personalized experiences. The drawback is that it's irreversible, there is risk of unintended reuse, and there is a lack of attribution/credit.
- 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)
Stops LinkedIn from sharing your de-identified data with third-party researchers.
- Me → Settings → Data privacy → Social, economic & workplace research → Off
Setting: Personalized Ads / Ad Preferences (set to off)
Limits how much LinkedIn tailors ads to your data and stops some tracking and targeting.
- Me → Settings → Advertising data → Off LinkedIn data → Off (for everything)
Setting: Research invites (set to off)
Allows third-party partners to send invitations to participate in surveys or market research.
- Me → Settings → Data privacy → Research invites → Off
Setting: LinkedIn promotions (set to off)
Allows personalized promotions of LinkedIn's own products based on your activity and profile. Ask yourself how many times you have signed up for a LinkedIn product in the last 10 years.
- Me → Settings → Data privacy → LinkedIn promotions → Off to both
Setting: Messaging suggestions (set to off)
Allows LinkedIn to show you suggestions using automated systems to recognize patterns in your messages. No thank you.
- 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?
- Me → Settings → Data privacy → Microsoft Word → Off
Setting: Represent company (set to off)
Your information can show up in other content not in your control such as job postings, sponsored content, etc.
- Me → Settings → Visibility → Represent company → Off
Setting: Two-Step Verification (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 of your data.
- Me → Settings → Sign in & security → Devices that remember your password → log out unfamiliar sessions
There are other options related to sharing, privacy, and security, 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 third-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 or phone number
- Visibility of Your LinkedIn Activity – prevents alerts to your network when you edit profile, change job, etc.
This post was written in October 2025 and likely these settings will change over the coming years, with some dropping and others added. Keep in mind that LinkedIn is not the only service that has these types of settings.
Good luck!