Stopping LinkedIn Profile Snooping

Advice columnist, Harriette Cole recently answered a question from a reader who is being stalked on LinkedIn by his/her ex-boyfriend.

Dear Harriette: About once a week, I receive a LinkedIn notification that my ex has viewed my profile. I don’t think he knows that I receive a notification whenever someone views my profile, and I am not sure if I should text him a heads-up about how transparent his snooping is. Would this be the kind thing to do, or would it simply embarrass him?

— Spying Sal, Dallas

Harriet's advice is sound:

Dear Spying Sal: Perhaps the good news is that you are aware of your ex’s spying. It lets you know that he has not been able to shake you from his life yet, for whatever reason. Continue to post on LinkedIn and any other social media that you use, being mindful that you are being watched. You do not need to alert him that you know he’s watching. That will only engage him in interaction when your intention must be to move on. Do not give him any reason to believe that there is a chance for you to reconnect if there is not.

Instead, continue to live your life and stay focused on what’s ahead. You may also want to be mindful of your surroundings. Be aware of who is around you, in case your ex’s spying turns into following you. If you start dating someone else, don’t post that right away. Don’t give your ex any reason to get heated about you.

As much as I like Harriette's advice, I feel there is more to be stated as it relates to LinkedIn and its functionality.

MY ADVICE TO SPYING SAL & THE EX

Dear Spying Sal,

It's weird seeing that name popping up on alerts and listed on your Who Viewed Your Profile screen, isn't it? As much as I agree with Harriet that you should keep living and not let this hinder your Social Media activity, there is another option you might want to consider: BLOCKING. It's a subtle way to deliver a message and depending on your ex's social media knowledge (which appears to be not so great), he may not realize you blocked him and will instead assume you canceled your LinkedIn account.

When you block a member on LinkedIn, you won't be able to access each other's profiles on LinkedIn or see shared content. The connection you might have had with that person will disappear along with any endorsements or recommendations you gave them or they gave you. If you viewed their profile or they viewed your profile, that view is wiped off the Who's Viewed Your Profile page. LinkedIn will also stop suggesting you to each other in features such as People You May Know and People also Viewed.

How do you block that person? Simply visit their profile and in the upper right-hand corner, click the three dots ... and click Report/Block from the droplist.

Don't worry about viewing their profile, once you block them, that view will disappear. Also, LinkedIn won't notify the member that you blocked them.

When your ex searches for your profile, your name will not appear in search results. If your ex was using a direct link to visit your profile, LinkedIn will display a message stating that the profile is not available. Your ex will probably assume you canceled your LinkedIn account. If he is smart enough to realize you blocked him, he'll get the point really fast that you knew he was visiting your profile ad nauseum.

If Spying Sal's ex is spending so much time on LinkedIn, most likely the ex is also lurking around Facebook and Instagram and other social media outposts. Most of those sites allow you to block members in a similar fashion as LinkedIn.

It's important to be careful. I'm assuming Spying Sal's ex is heartbroken but perfectly harmless and in a few weeks will be fine and heading forward again. It's a different situation when the ex is toxic. But that's an article for another time.

So what do you think, readers? Have you ever blocked a person on LinkedIn? Did blocking the person help the situation? What advice would you give Spying Sal? Sound off in the comments, I'll meet you there!