XING Help Center

Here you’ll find answers to your questions, and information about XING features. You can also contact the XING Support team if you need any other assistance.

Privacy Policy and settings

  • Is the security of my data guaranteed?
    XING is made secure with 128 bit SSL encryption. This is the same encryption method used, e.g. by banks for their online banking processes. We treat all user data confidentially and comply with strict European data protection guidelines. We do not forward member data to third parties.

    For more information, please refer to our Privacy Policy. If you have any other questions, please use our contact form.
  • How can I change my data protection settings?
    By going to Settings/Invoices & Accounts (the cog icon near the bottom of the sidebar on the left) and clicking on the "Privacy" tab you can protect your privacy and choose for yourself how much information about you is seen by others.
  • Openness and Privacy
    You can decide for yourself how much information about you is seen by others on XING. To edit your privacy settings, simply go to Settings (the cog icon near the bottom of the sidebar on the left) followed by the Privacy" tab.

    We recommend you think about the benefits of leaving your privacy settings open for the purposes of gaining new business contacts and managing your network. For example, if you allow any member to add you as a contact the chances are higher that you will be found by potential business partners, former colleagues, recruiters and the like. You should of course think about which details you'd like to keep private or only display to certain contacts. You can decide all this on a contact-by-contact basis in your privacy settings.
  • Are my personal contact details visible to members and visitors?
    All of the data with a padlock is only available if you shared it with that specific contact.

    You can also prevent people from finding your profile outside of XING by clicking on "Settings (cog symbol in the left sidebar) > Privacy" and then removing the check in the "Make my profile visible to non-members" box.

    If you log out and then visit your own profile you'll no longer be able to see any personal details and a lot of the other fields will be hidden or only contain limited information.
  • Advertising on XING
    No personal member data is passed on to any third parties at any time. This includes all personal information such as addresses or landline and cell phone numbers. As the operator of XING we are responsible for ensuring that our members’ data is protected in accordance with data protection regulations. We are aware that our members place great importance on their personal data being treated with absolute confidentiality. Advertising on XING is implemented in accordance with German and European data protection laws and guidelines. XING members have full control over their data security and privacy – and this will not change at any point in the future.

    We endeavour to make advertising on the platform as relevant as possible for each individual member. Targeting does take place on XING on the basis of anonymous geographic and demographic factors such as "gender", "age" and "country/region". No advertising is ever shown that is based on personal data.
  • How can I make sure I've chosen a secure password?
    You should bear the following in mind when choosing your password: • It should be at least 10 characters long and include both large and small letters, as well as numbers and special characters. • Do not use any passwords that you use for other websites. • Try not to include any personal information (e.g. name, address, birthday, phone or account number). • Avoid words/names that are easy to guess (hobbies, favorite club, artist, symbols, etc.).
  • How secure is my data?
    Use of the platform is made secure with a 128 bit SSL encryption. XING treats all user data in the utmost confidence in line with strict European data protection guidelines and guarantees that this data will not be transfered to third parties. Data marked with is private. You decide who is given authorization to view this data.
  • Where can I change my email address?
    You can change your email address under "Home → Edit Profile → Contact details → Email addresses". Please be aware that you must re-confirm the contents of your profile once you have made your changes for security reasons. You will then receive an email sent to your new email address. Please click on the link in the email to confirm the changes.
  • What do non-members see when they view my profile?
    You can allow non-members to view your profile by going to "Settings" (cog symbol in the left sidebar) > "Privacy" and then the "Edit" button in "My privacy settings" where you can check the box "Make my profile page visible to non-members as well". If you do so, non-members will see the following:

    • First name, last name, picture, current position, country and city of your business address
    • What you've entered into the fields "Wants", "Haves", "Interests" and "Organizations"
    • Information on your career experience (company name, position, and industry), your status
    • universities you've entered (including area of study) and languages


    The name of your current company is only visible to registered members.
  • How can I prevent my profile from appearing in search engines?
    Please click on the following link to go to your privacy settings: https://www.xing.com/app/settings?op=privacy. The first three entries in the privacy tab are:

    - "Make my profile visible to non-members"
    - "Allow search engines to find my profile"
    - "Make my posts in public groups available to search engines".

    These options are selected by default if you signed up to XING after August 17, 2007, to allow non-XING members to find your profile online (e.g. via search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!, etc.)

    If you'd like to change this, just click on edit next to "My privacy settings" and remove the checks next to the second and third entries mentioned above. Then click on save.

    If your profile is still visible in search engines after making these changes, it is saved in your search engine's cache. As we have no influence over this, you will need to be patient as it may take weeks or months before the search engine updates its files so your profile is no longer visible.
  • How can I modify my language settings?
    You can select the language in which you would like to use the platform by going to "Settings (cog symbol in the left sidebar) > Personal data". There you also have the option of prioritizing people and groups in search lists that correspond to your language settings or people who come from the country where you live.
  • How can I make certain contact details available to individual contacts?
    Data entries with a padlock can only be shared on an individual basis, meaning that it's not possible to make such entries available to everyone in one go. There are several options for choosing the relevant settings for your shared personal info and then editing them at a later stage:

    When confirming contact requests
    When confirming contact requests you can choose which details you share. You can then set this as your default, meaning that these settings will be automatically used for future contact request confirmations.

    On a XING member's profile
    If you call up a profile you'll see the "Edit shared personal info" option you can click on to edit your settings for that person.

    In your contact list
    By going to "Home > Contacts" in the top navigation menu you'll also find a "more"link you can click on to find the "Edit shared personal info" section where you can edit your settings.
  • How can I change my notification email address?
    To change your active notification email address, go to your profile and scroll down to the last section, "Contact details". There you can select the address to which XING notifications should be sent. You can choose your business or private email address, or an additional email not visible to other XING members.

    To select which notifications you wish to receive, go to the sidebar on the left and select "Settings > Notifications". Please note: For your security and to help avoid spam, you'll have to confirm the newly added email address before notifications will be sent. We'll send a confirmation email to you for this purpose.
  • How can I change my privacy settings?
    You are in full control of how much information about you is visible to others on XING. If you would like to make changes to your privacy settings, go to the homepage and click on My privacy settings. Then click on "Edit", and select or deselect options by clicking on the checkbox. Here you can decide

    • whether your profile is visible to non-members
    • whether your profile can be found by search engines
    • whether your posts and comments in groups can be found by search engines and RSS feeds
    • which members can view your contact list
    • which members are permitted to send you messages and make entries in your guestbook
    • whether your activity index is displayed
    • whether your skype online status is displayed
    • whether your business location is displayed in the map view
    • which information about you may be displayed in the "What's new in your network" feed
    • which external applications have access to your XING data

    When you sign up for XING, all settings are set to 'visible to all' by default. By limiting your visibility, you will also limit the number of people who view your profile, which may decrease the likelihood of being contacted by other XING members.

    Please keep in mind: If you want to change the information you share with a specific contact, just click on that person's profile and then on the button "Edit shared personal info" or go to your contact list (Home -> Contacts). Next to each contact you can make changes by clicking on "more -> Edit shared personal info". If you make changes, be sure to save them before going to another page.
  • How do I disclose security vulnerabilities responsibly?
    Here at XING we work closely with security researchers in order to act in a responsible way. XING is willing to address reported vulnerabilities quickly. We intend to patch the vulnerability before details become publicly available as it ensures safety for our end users. Please get in touch with us by sending an email to security-reports [at] xing [dot] com and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
  • Visibility of your contacts to other people
    You can edit your privacy settings to choose who can see your contacts. In the settings section, go to the privacy tab, and click on the edit button next to the my privacy settings section. Here you can either check or uncheck the box next to "Make my contact list visible to:". Unfortunately we don't currently offer any other options to edit the visibility settings for individual members.
  • I don't want my contacts to receive notifications every time I update my profile.
    To change this, go to the left sidebar and click on "Settings/Invoices & Accounts" (cog symbol) > Privacy" and remove the check in the following boxes in the "My posts and updates" section:

    - Personal information (Wants, Haves, etc.)
    - Professional experience, Attachments, Educational background and web profiles
    - Basic profile data, photo, instant messaging and contact details, XING membership

    Now you can update your profile as often as you like without notifying your contacts each time.
  • How can I report a suspicious profile?
    First of all, go to the profile you'd like to report. Then click on "more" in the top right-hand corner, followed by "Report this profile".
  • How do I block other members?
    If you don’t want certain members to view your profile you can simply block them. Please note that you can only block members you’re not directly connected to.

    • Go to the member profile you want to block.
    • To the right of the member profile you’ll see the option “Block this user”.

    How do I unblock someone?

    • Go to the member profile you blocked.
    • To the right of the member profile you’ll see the option “Unblock this user”.