LinkedIn Help or should we say the lack of it when needed……..

Have you noticed that you have received the following on

‘Who’s Viewed Your Profile’ section of your LinkedIn profile :-

– Someone at ‘Company ABC’ has viewed your profile

– Anonymous viewer has viewed your profile

– Anonymous viewer, A LinkedIn member has viewed your profile

Who are you?

Do I have something that you want?

What are you wanting to get from me?

Ever since I have been a member of LinkedIn, I have always had any of the above appear on the section of ‘Who’s Viewed Your Profile’ on my LinkedIn profile either on a daily basis or every two to three days. When you complain or raise the topic with LinkedIn via their Help Forum’s/Support Section, they always provide the standard stock answer:-

We do not have a way to block other members from viewing profiles, this includes anonymous members, I am sorry.  We are considering adding such a feature but I do not have release date to provide.  Should such a feature be rolled out there will be an announcement

More and more members are finding this to be totally annoying and in some cases a cause of concern as you don’t really who they are or why they are doing it. This can create immense distress sometimes, as one member placed in a comment, “I have a court order against someone but how do I know if it is these people who I have court orders or injunctions against?” Thus, this facility can distress them as they are unable to find out who or why they have been viewed. Examples of this topic being discussed include:-

http://community.linkedin.com/questions/83151/anonymous-viewers-1.html#comment-124781

or

http://community.linkedin.com/questions/32330/linked-in-member-or-anonymous.html#comment-121600

Both the links above, are just two of many questions that have been raised in their (LinkedIn) community groups, yet everyone seems to get the same standard stock response as mentioned above. So, what is there to be done? It would seem there is nothing that can be done except just keep asking and raising it to see if anything will be done….

Or is it……or should something be done?

Well the answer I would say is YES – something does need to be done and here is why…

LinkedIn recently lowered the age for joining LinkedIn from 18 (except China) as stated below:-

• 14 years old: United States, Canada, Germany, Spain, Australia and South Korea
• 16 years old: Netherlands
• 18 years old: China
• 13 years old: All other countries

(details on the changes to their terms and conditions are here – plus here is the blog by Christina Allen on the reason behind the launch of  University Pages which then lead to the launch of lowering the age of joining LinkedIn to enjoy the benefits of “LinkedIn – Now for Education” )

With all the issues on the internet of stalking and trolling and together with stalking in the real world, we all have to be careful as to how we let and monitor our children on the internet. So, if I was allowing my two daughters to be on LinkedIn, and they came to me saying they were having lots of anonymous viewers, I would certainly want some answers and have to re-consider allowing them to be on LinkedIn.

When I raised this (on several occasions including this one) with other’s, they were of the very same opinion about their children too. In essence, whether it is teenagers who are the next generations of Professional Networkers, Woman or Men, the right to be allowed to view members should not be allowed in today’s modern society.

LinkedIn are clearly allowing people to operate like stalkers or trolls with their full support by continuing to allow this facility to continue. Yet why? Has LinkedIn not learnt anything from Twitter and the issues raised here:-

• http://www.channel4.com/news/police-have-failed-to-crack-down-on-twitter-trolls
• http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2013/08/abuse-twitter
• http://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/treat-twitter-trolls-the-same-as-stalkers-8736786.html
• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2208835/Leo-Traynor-The-day-I-confronted-Twitter-troll-stalked-3-years.html
• http://www.collyerbristow.com/Default.aspx?sID=825

Whilst I can’t say that trolling or stalking has taken place here on LinkedIn (to my knowledge), I do think that LinkedIn really need to start thinking of not just the anonymous viewing but also the sign up method (example here about a 10-year-old?)

These are just my thoughts, but I would be glad to hear your thoughts on this topic of “Anonymous Viewing” or if you want to comment on “the new lower age for joining” via the reply section below or by completing this form:-