On LinkedIn, I’m sent notifications that people have viewed my profile. In some instances, the identity of the person checking me out is revealed. Other times, the notice says that the person was in "private mode." Other times, LinkedIn encourages me to upgrade to Premium so that they can reveal to me everyone who has looked at my profile.

This feature of the social network for professionals has always puzzled me, and I can’t imagine I’m the only one.

Under PIPEDA, I’m allowed to access my own personal information but not if doing so would reveal the personal information of a third party. So, if I asked LinkedIn for the identities of the people who viewed my profile, presumably they would refuse because providing that information would reveal the personal information of third parties. But, if I pay the Premium fee, apparently I’m entitled to it. So, in a way, I’m able to purchase more rights than what is afforded under the law.

And, the fact that my own identity is sometimes protected but other times revealed makes me quite trepidatious about performing my own searches. If others have the same concerns, that means there may be lot of people out there that might want to check out my profile — or yours — but don’t want to because they aren’t sure if their own identity will be revealed.

All in all, while LinkedIn is, by far, my favorite social network to belong to and participate in, I’m just unsure that they got this aspect of it quite right. What do you think?