LinkedIn is committed to protecting member privacy. As a result, we're changing the way we identify audiences for our ads. Generally, we've been using individual identifiers to determine if a LinkedIn member account has viewed or engaged with an ad. These identifiers include Google Ad ID on Android and first and third-party cookies on web browsers.

We’re building on our commitment to member privacy by introducing privacy-enhancing approaches that establish online professional identity across channels and devices. One of the ways we establish professional identity is Group Identity.

Group Identity helps deliver ads and measure campaign conversions while minimizing or eliminating the use of third-party personal information on our servers. As a result, ads delivered and measured with Group Identity might sometimes align only partially with a campaign’s targeting criteria.

How Group Identity works

With Group Identity, we apply privacy-enhancing methods to our first-party data to group member accounts. Groups are based on shared professional traits, such as a member’s job title, company, industry, and more. Groups leverage our first-party targeting attributes to ensure that members of the group are similar.

Group Identity then determines how an ad can be served while minimizing personal information shared about a user across contexts.

Where we use Group Identity

Currently, we only use group-level identity for a portion of ads running on the LinkedIn Audience Network.

Learn more