Can users hide their activities on StackExchange under their network profile?

Question

Is there a way to protect users' privacy by not showing their activities on all the StackExchange sites under their network profiles?

Can users hide their network profiles, or links to them?

Thanks.

Answer 1

I'm far from up-to-date on these kinds of things, but I found some information on Meta.SE that suggests that:

• 2016: you can hide the network profile on individual profiles
  • it was further asked: "What about network profile activity?" to which the response was: "Probably not going to change anytime soon."
• 2016: a request to hide activities from hidden networks -- seems to be the "source" duplicate for a few similar questions (linked to that post)
• 2015: What is the purpose of hiding communities if they are visible anyway?

... so to answer your questions, to the best of my knowledge:

Is there a way to protect users' privacy by not showing their activities on all the StackExchange sites under their network profiles?

I don't believe this is possible right now; it seems to me like the "top" and "activity" tabs include activity even from hidden profiles.

Can users hide their network profiles, or links to them?

• Yes, I believe a "hidden" profile (as MC68020 said, profile -- settings -- site settings -- hide communities) will not show a link back to the parent network profile "for everyone but the user and site moderators".