Security1 publisher2 min readPublished
LinkedIn lets verified company pages hide impersonator accounts from search
LinkedIn now lets admins of verified Company Pages remove known impersonator accounts from search results under the company name. Companies that have not verified their page cannot use it, so fake-employee cleanup on LinkedIn starts with whoever controls that page.
The Watch · Security desk
What happened
- A pilot lets a selection of companies require workplace verification before anyone claiming to work there now can associate a profile with the company's Page.
- LinkedIn is testing peer verification, in which verified members confirm that they worked or studied with a connection and enough confirmations add a badge.
- In the coming months, members will also be able to ask their connections to verify their work or school experience.
- Truecaller and PeerSpot have joined Verified on LinkedIn, the program that lets members carry a verified profile to partner platforms without verifying again.
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Why it matters
- constraint Hiding accounts from company-name search closes one way of finding them, but as LinkedIn describes the control, it does nothing about a fake profile already messaging an employee or customer.
- exposure Companies outside the pilot cannot stop a false claim of current employment from attaching to their Page, so their response begins only once the profile is visible under their name.
- capability Someone posing as company staff on a phone call now faces an identity check during the call itself, for recipients who use Truecaller and can see whether the caller is verified on LinkedIn.
The search control covers "known" impersonator accounts, according to Help Net Security's report on the changes [2]. That means an admin can act only on fake employees someone has already found. The report does not name the pilot companies, say how an account comes to count as a known impersonator, or state how many peer confirmations earn a badge [2][3][4].
The pilot works at an earlier step. When a company requires workplace verification, a profile claiming a current job there cannot associate with the company's Page until that claim is checked [3]. The search control deals with the same profile only after it has shown up under the company name [2].
Only two of the four changes are in a company's hands. Admins of verified pages get the search control, and selected firms get the pilot [2][3]. Peer badges and the Truecaller display work at the member level, and a security team does not switch them on [15].
Oscar Rodriguez, LinkedIn's VP of Trust Product, pitched the peer check as credibility for the person being confirmed [14]. "When you help verify a shared past or current work or school experience of one of your connections, it adds peer-backed credibility and reassurance," Rodriguez wrote [6]. Members can opt out [5].
Truecaller's pitch is aimed at the person who picks up the phone. "That gives the person receiving a call a more trustworthy picture of who is reaching out," said Kunal Dua, Truecaller's chief product officer [10][11].
What to watch
- Whether LinkedIn extends the workplace-verification requirement beyond its pilot companies, and on what date.
- Whether the impersonator control goes beyond search results to account takedowns or limits on messaging.
- How many peer confirmations LinkedIn requires before it adds a verification badge to a profile.