LinkedIn does a lot of things well. Security is not one of them. The platform actively encourages you to share information that makes it dramatically easier for hackers to target you.
These are the issues I see across nearly every profile I review. Fix them now.
Don’t make your login email public
The email you use to log into LinkedIn is the same one that shows up under your “Contact info.” LinkedIn doesn’t let you split them. In other words, your login email is always your contact email, which means a determined attacker has the first piece of a credential-stuffing attack handed to them.
Always use a login email address that isn’t shared anywhere else (true for any social). And on LinkedIn, hide your email address so no one can see you. If they want to reach out, they’ll DM you.
Don’t add your birthday
Your birthday is a key identifier for identity theft and bank-level security questions. There is no upside to putting it on a professional networking platform.
Same goes for every other social. Especially Facebook. (Where, by the way, Zuck wanted to give you fake AI friends. Different rant.)
Don’t add your address or phone number
SIM-card hijacking, spoofing, password resets: all of these get easier the moment your phone number is publicly attached to a real name and a real face. If you need a contact number on your profile, use Google Voice or a similar service. Never put your actual mobile number on a public profile.
Don’t add your high school
Pop quiz: what’s a common “security question” used to reset passwords? Right. So why is your high school in your education section?
If you didn’t go to college, just leave the education section blank. Your profile is not your CV.
Remove the dates from your education
Same logic. Attendance and graduation years let someone narrow down your birth year fast. Keep dates on your CV. Strip them from LinkedIn.
Stop LinkedIn from training AI on your data
Settings & Privacy → Data Privacy → Data for Generative AI Improvement → toggle off.
Same path: Personal demographic information → edit or delete.
Just because LinkedIn wants this data to “build you a better profile” doesn’t mean you have to give it to them.
Turn on 2FA
It’s 2025. Two-factor authentication should be standard by now. Use an authenticator app (Google Authenticator, Authy, 1Password). Not SMS, which loops you back to the SIM-hijacking problem above.
That’s the short list. If you want more practical “lock down your stuff” content for non-techies, I write a Substack newsletter called “FFS, Secure Your Sh*t” where I go deeper.