LinkedIn rolls out ways to verify your identity and employment, without a price tag

LinkedIn is introducing new ways to verify your identity and where you work, the company announced on Wednesday. Unlike with Twitter and Meta, LinkedIn’s new verification measures don’t include paid subscriptions or blue checkmarks.

The company is partnering with CLEAR, a secure identity platform, to provide verification for LinkedIn users in the United States. Starting this month, users can display on your profile that they verified your identity with CLEAR. To do so, you need to provide your government-issued ID and phone number.

Once you verify your identity, your profile will display a new “Verifications” section under the “Connect” and “Message” buttons. Users who visit your profile will see a checkmark next to a “Government ID” banner that will indicate that you have “a verified government ID.”

LinkedIn users around the world also have the option to verify where they work with their company email. To confirm your place of employment, you have to enter a verification code sent to your company email address. LinkedIn notes that this feature works with over 4,000 companies on the platform. The platform plans to roll out this option to more companies overtime.

Image Credits: LinkedIn

Alternatively, LinkedIn has partnered with Microsoft to allow organizations to leverage the Microsoft Entra Verified ID platform to issue digital workplace IDs for free for eligible users. The new option will roll out at the end of this month. LinkedIn plans to make this option available to dozens of participating companies reaching more than two million LinkedIn members.

“Through all these new, free features, we’re helping give you the confidence that who you’re connecting with and the content you come across is trusted and authentic,” the company wrote in a blog post. “While all LinkedIn members globally won’t have access to these verification options immediately, we will expand availability and ways for you to participate over time. We’ll keep you updated as we continue rolling out more features like these.”

The new verification features come as LinkedIn introduced ways to verify your phone number and email last fall. It’s worth noting that these two verification options aren’t displayed on your profile with verification badges, unlike the new options announced today, which have a prominent space on user profiles.

Unlike Twitter and Meta, which bundled verification with additional features, LinkedIn is choosing to keep its verification features focused on confirming users’ identifies in the hopes of providing an extra layer of protection when it comes to fake or scam accounts. Twitter’s paid verification option is bundled with its Blue subscription, which costs $8 per month, and gives users access to other perks like fewer ads. Meta’s verification option, called Meta Verified, is available on Instagram and Facebook and costs $11.99 per month on the web and $14.99 per month on mobile.

LinkedIn says it believes verification should be available for everyone, which is why its verification features will be available for free.

LinkedIn rolls out ways to verify your identity and employment, without a price tag by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch