Source: WIRED
LinkedIn is experimenting with visibility into profile viewership patterns, inverting the platform's traditional asymmetry where lurking carried no social cost. This creates friction for passive consumption—users browsing profiles for research, competitive intelligence, or casual interest now risk social exposure, which could shift how professionals use the platform or reduce comfort with low-commitment browsing. The feature also opens a behavioral data stream LinkedIn can monetize or use to refine user targeting, while creating a privacy theater moment that may increase perceived transparency without meaningfully changing what the company does with viewing data.