LinkedIn API - How to explain "private" connections?

Question

I've just noticed that when I do the GET request to get all of my LinkedIn connections https://api.linkedin.com/v1/people/~/connections?modified=new (in their console for instance), some of the responses I get look like this:

 <person>
    <id>private</id>
    <first-name>private</first-name>
    <last-name>private</last-name>
</person>

I have yet to find an answer via Google, so I'm asking here: why do I get this, what privacy settings causes it?

Thanks

Answer 1

There are several possible data privacy-related account settings that a LinkedIn member can configure that can limit, in some way, the results of certain API calls. These settings control who can see what about a person's LinkedIn profile. Hitting these limits causes "private" records to be returned in call responses.

The most common setting is members that opt out of sharing data with 3rd party applications, found in:

Privacy & Settings -> Groups, Companies & Applications -> Turn on/off data sharing with 3rd party applications

There are several advantages to returning these "empty" records over removing them from the responses entirely (e.g. keeping record counts synchronized for paging through API results).