How to opt out of advertising in LinkedIn?

| Updated: Monday, March 4, 2013, 12:54 [IST]

It is an era of social advertising which has emerged as a new means of increasing the business of the brands. LinkedIn rival Facebook mentioned this feature as ‘Sponsored Stories’ where as LinkedIn says it is none other than social ads. Let’s take a detailed look on what the social advertising is all about and how the users can opt out of it.

As a professional networking site, LinkedIn feels that it is important for them to promote social ads as a means of an advertising platform that performs actions on the users network that include recommendations. LinkedIn makes use of the users name as well as photo in the advertisement.

How to opt out of advertising in LinkedIn?

Even though LinkedIn decided to remove the photos of the users from the ad, due to negative feedbacks, now they have released a message saying that LinkedIn has updated the privacy conditions.

The chain-letter-type message says that instead of attracting too much of publicity as well as any actions from the user’s side, LinkedIn now has the permission to make use of the name and picture of the user in any of the advertisements they wish.

Instead of including a thumbnail of the user’s picture on the ad, now the users will have to click on the link that denotes how many people follow the advertised company if they wish to see the contact photos. Thus the chain-letter message helps the users in passing the warning to almost 50 of the user’s connections.

But one of the main obstacles in it is that LinkedIn automatically select the user in to the social ads. And if you are one of those users who wishes to opt out of these social advertising, then the following steps has to be followed.

Navigate towards the name of the user in the top right corner

From the drop-down menu provided, click on the ‘Settings’ option

Select the ‘Account’ tab present in the Settings Page

Then users will have to click on ‘Privacy Controls’

Select among the options provided ‘Manage Social Advertising’

Finally the users will have to uncheck the box that allows LinkedIn use the name and photo of the user for social advertising

The unchecking of the box will prevent the users from making use of their picture as well as name by LinkedIn for social advertising

By following the above mentioned steps, users can opt out comfortably from the social advertising in LinkedIn to ensure privacy and utmost confidentiality as per the users wish.