We want to stalk people with greater anonymity, but LinkedIn nudges us to login at every opportunity. There are quite a few methods online for viewing Linkedin profiles anonymously or without an account. I did a quick Google search and didn’t see this approach used. Most techniques boil down to:
- Use a stylesheet to override the CSS (now defunct).
- Have an account and set your privacy to make yourself totally anonymous. This stops data collection of other people who view your profile, and still causes you to trigger anonymous profile views.
The method I’m proposing lets you view LinkedIn profile pages without an account, and anonymously. Your data remains intact.
Scroll to the bottom for the currently working method.
How to View LinkedIn Profiles Without An Account (Old Method)
- Find out the person’s profile URL using Google. Copy it.
- Open Google Translate and paste in the URL.
- Select a language to ‘translate from’ other than english.
- Click the ‘translate’ button. Press the ‘original’ button if needed.
- You can now view their LinkedIn profile anonymously and without an account.
That’s all there is to it.
If you need images:
How does this work?
If we try to access my own profile URL we get redirected via JS to:
But if Google tries to access that URL, it can. Google gets a relatively free pass in accessing most of the web. By using Google Translate to access LinkedIn, we use Google on our behalf to retrieve the page for us, thereby avoiding the login wall and not alerting our target that we’re stalking them.
I don’t believe that this triggers anonymous account views, or any views at all. It’s not the full profile, but it’s enough to satisfy the stalking itch for most. Enjoy it for as long as it lasts.
tl;dr – use Google translate. tl;dr – scroll down slightly this method has broken.
How to View LinkedIn Profiles Without An Account
- Find out the person’s profile URL using Google. Copy it.
- Open Google’s mobile friendly test and paste in the URL.
- Open the Source Code tab and copy the code.
- Paste the code into an online HTML viewer like JSBin.
- You can once again view their LinkedIn profile anonymously and without an account.
The first method broke, probably because I published it on the internet. This is slightly more of a hassle but it works for the slightly limited profile that’s exposed to Search Engines. This one may break too. I think it will be more robust than Google translate since it pretends to be the Googlebot used for ranking the internet, but enjoy it while you can.
In Images:
That’s it – use it or just log in.
(then check out the LinkedIn for Dummies book and then buy some other things on amazon .Or don’t.)
Works like a charm, thanks for the tip!
Sir, thou art a bad motherfucker :)
I tried this once a few days ago and it worked perfectly. Today it seems Google has closed this loophole. :(
Seemed to be working for me today on my own profile – maybe it was an issue with that particular profile? Hope it’s not closed.
I get a 500 Error from Google when I try this now. Are you seeing the same?
I can confirm I’m seeing the same. I’ll update if I find a better workaround.
Thanks for the reply. I’ll continue working on a workaround myself and keep you updated as well.
Hi my friend,
Go to: http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?ref=Internal&from=&to=fr&a=
Copy the linkedin URL and enjoy!
Let’s see how long it’ll last…
Hey,
I can confirm both google and Microsoft won’t work anymore :(
Year 2020
Works fine! No need to fix something that ain’t ‘broke’.
Yandex translate won’t work anymore as well. Uh…. What else is left?
Sorry, I could be wrong. It’s working in another computer with different IP.
Please help delete my previous comments. Thanks.
Darn… late to the party and it doesn’t work :(
Any more work arounds? This so called “public” profile that isn’t public… *seethe*
any possible way to view linkedin without logging in ?
I love you!! Thanks
I love you Thanks for you
Very Cool Bro..
Thanks, that was really helpful! (Though not because I wanted to stalk people ; I just kinda can’t make an account as of now, and after reading enough articles on how to make your LinkedIn profile stand out, I wanted to see what that would actually look like on LinkedIn :P)
Brilliant… “Google’s mobile friendly test” is a very good solution, thank you. It works so far.
Heroe! It still works :D
Thank you!
Google’s mobile-friendly test method is working like charm (29 jan 2021)!
Want to share for a friend profile
Was working like a charm a few weeks ago. Now still displays fine in Google Mobile-Friendly Test, but JSBin only displays a giant LinkedIn logo and no other images (and the rest is also quite basically formatted).
Does not work anymore, please fix this.
Still works in May 2021!
Paste results into plain HTML file , and open in browser.
LinkedIn ╭∩╮ ͡(̿▀̿ ̿Ĺ̯̿̿▀̿ ̿)̄
Still works in Sep 16th 2021 great solution for work where i dont sign in at any of my accounts. (Dont trust anybody)
I correct my self only the Google Mobile-Friendly Test method works for me JBin show the full profile you just have to copy the actual link not the text on the search results
I want this page gone.
No workee as of 5/31/23.
None of this works in June, 2023.
It seems google won’t let you test the url without logging in.