Ask HN: Do LinkedIn's post analytics de-anonymize startup founders?

2 points

9 years ago

LinkedIn offers a way for individuals to see analytics about their posts [1]. For example, I can see that a recent post I made was seen by former colleagues who are still at my prior company, as well as classmates from UCLA.

On its face, this is not troublesome. Both orgs are very large and I am friends with many people from both. So these analytics do nor uncloak anyone in particular.

But I'm a startup founder at a very small startup. Does LinkedIn show that "1 person from BeeLine Reader" viewed a post? If so, this is as good as saying "Nick Lum viewed this post", which seems quite troublesome. I surf LinkedIn in ghost mode because I prefer to be anonymous there — especially now that LinkedIn aggressively blocks browsers that are not logged in.

It is possible that LinkedIn doesn't display stats for companies with fewer than X employees, but even if they had an exception for this, it would still not be sufficient. Imagine a 25-person company with whom you have only one connection. If they show that "1 person from Company Z" viewed your post, you pretty much know who this is.

1: https://imgur.com/a/yheAy