Answer 201811 to LinkedIn who asked me why I do not put photo on my profile.
I dont like photos of myself be public.
A public professional profile get sufficient information to be reached and identified (same on other soical media or networks - not business).
If you are not a robot, like more input and think to improve LinkedIn, I continue :
I give my picture to people who ask me for one, not to anybody on hearth -I’m not a public man-, because I do not have to sale my person, but eventually my services, knowledges, skills, or my company.
People who dont know me have to see my professional skills first (and eventually my age, background,...) : they should not be attracted or troubled by my face/appearance on a photo, that can be too nice, ancient,...
Then if they want to go further with me (mainly for business with linkedIn, but also for non-business goals), they can contact me. If seing a picture of me is a pre-requisite for them, then they should be honest and clear to say why. I wont be offended when they ask me a photo of myself -an I may accept of refuse to send a picture, then to go further/work or not with them-. Trust with them will not built on a photo on LinkedIn, and even less start from that. But by acts. The best to see my face is to meet me.
People who know me don’t really need a picture of me on LinkedIn. When they need, they can keep picture(s) of me in THEIR contacts. When they publish a picture of me on the web (like LinkedIn does), this is their responsability and I may appreciate or not -if too largely diffused, if I dont like the picture,…), so I expect publishers (like LinkedIn, FB, Amazon,…) will suppress it on my demand -and that the procedure is not complexe/long but efficient-. Same if they publish my face or words on the street.
Then, whatever they like or dislike my face, this should in theory not change things a lot in our relationship, and if this change things they and I will assume. You can apply the same idea with people appearance on the web.
Publishing a picture of oneself’s face on a profile is surely reassuring for many people who see the profile. This can even help distinguish 2 homonyme profiles, find fortunately an old friend,.. But an (unliked) picture can also discourage to contact, while a direct physical contact might have been sucessfull. Imagine I'm uggly (even I dont think I am - now, thats subjective - or, worse, judgmental). Will I publish my real face ? or falsify ?
Finally, a profile picture can be used to impersonate somebody, and this can help for frauds, which internet already increased by many other ways.
=profile photos of the person is not essential on the web for professionnal relationship not for friendhip... furthermore it is rather not wishable for above reasons, and privacy ones.
When people use internet (virtual things) they could (or should) accept to see a virtual identity : a professional identity, a hobby-identity, like the identity of a legal person (company, association),... When people want to meet me -in real life-, they will have to accept seeing me (my apparence) -or ask me to dress up if they fear my appearance can be uggly, or if they want to meet/test me in blind. I do not want to lure them with a picture of me (altered, too nice, ancient) for a more natural meeting and relashionship.
Virtual life can separate different activities (business, hobbies, friends), while real life can not. So we have to leave the full control to real life.
I would be happy LinkedIn shares -publicly- a reflexion and actions about privacy of photo of persons on profiles (and elsewhere): leave the right to display no picture on the profile, interest to display alternatively to a personal photo the company logo or a picture of any subject that motivates the dematerialized activity on LinkedIn (for me, this might be an antibody and a cell on my company logo. LinkedIn may even have tools to make such an ‘avatar’ !),…
LinkedIn privacy policy surelly deals also with other personal information. I’m concerned that LinkedIn has invited to my network some contacts I had in a domain (immovable) not related to my business (taking their email adress from my Google account), and that some of these contacts recieved invitations in my name. Facebook do that in a cleaner way (just suggestions). Searching in my profile parameters, I was unable to avoid this happen again -but closing my account-.
All (personal or not) photos and information are stocked end-less on Internet, but have, beside privacy concerns, an ecological cost. What does LinkedIn to refrain this endless flight ? Can LinkedIn acts for more frugality, suggesting users to clean/delete old and/or unuseful information,… and avoid always more and more pictures of anybody and any thing, more short messages and few rich-content ones, more tweets kept indefinitely rather than few good articles kept more accessibly,…).