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LinkedIn violated data protection by using 18M email addresses of non-members

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Re: LinkedIn violated data protection by using 18M email addresses of non-members

#2
Just go to the “people you may know” page and you’ll see dozens of shadow profiles of people who clearly don’t have LinkedIn accounts. Mine shows relatives who I know don’t have accounts — but whose contact info was scraped by LinkedIn during my dumber years when I opted into their “help us connect you by linking your account” bullshit.

Is there a way to request they remove this data? I sure don’t know how.

Re: LinkedIn violated data protection by using 18M email addresses of non-members

#3
we also identified one further area where we could improve data privacy for non-members

And what about members? It's utterly horrifying that a professional has to sell themselves on glorified social media and all its nefarious practices just to give themselves a change on the job market.

Re: LinkedIn violated data protection by using 18M email addresses of non-members

#5
I naively installed the app on my phone, which gave them my phone number. Then I started getting cold calls from people who paid to have access to my number through LinkedIn. I never entered my number anywhere, however the cold callers repeatedly told me they got my information from LinkedIn.

Re: LinkedIn violated data protection by using 18M email addresses of non-members

#6
LinkedIn is one of the worse dark-pattern based business out there. Their whole business model is based on making connections between people, however unwanted they are.

They use any means necessary to get your contact list and abuse it to spam your contacts with dubious marketing ploys and unverifiable claims (someone looked you up! you're missing on new jobs opportunities!).

Liars.

I've resisted creating an account so far but the pressure to conform is there as you basically "don't exist" without a profile that lazy HR managers can look up.

Re: LinkedIn violated data protection by using 18M email addresses of non-members

#7
post #3

we also identified one further area where we could improve data privacy for non-members And what about members? It's utterly horrifying that a professional has to sell themselves on glorified social media and all its nefarious practices just to give themselves a change on the job market.

> And what about members?

Presumably, they agreed to this.

> It's utterly horrifying that a professional has to sell themselves on glorified social media and all its nefarious practices just to give themselves a change on the job market.

I would say that's a gravely mistaken belief.

Re: LinkedIn violated data protection by using 18M email addresses of non-members

#8
post #2

Just go to the “people you may know” page and you’ll see dozens of shadow profiles of people who clearly don’t have LinkedIn accounts. Mine shows relatives who I know don’t have accounts — but whose contact info was scraped by LinkedIn during my dumber years when I opted into their “help us connect you by linking your account” bullshit. Is there a way to request they remove this data? I sure don’t know how.

From linkedin.com/settings I clicked sync contacts, which took me to this url: https://www.linkedin.com/mynetwork/settings/manage-syncing

There you will find an an option to "remove all."

Re: LinkedIn violated data protection by using 18M email addresses of non-members

#9
LinkedIn's growth, much like Facebook's, can mostly be attributed to the use of its "contact importer," which seems to have been where the 18M email addresses came from. Generally speaking, you should read the fine print when using such "features".

I do see an issue with part of this complaint: storing hashed emails and uploading those to use for targeted advertisements. The general consensus seems to be that even under the draconian rues of the GDPR, a hash of an email is not personally identifiable and therefore that data would not be subject to the GDPR. It appears that the DPC overstepped their bounds on that specific aspect of the investigation.

Re: LinkedIn violated data protection by using 18M email addresses of non-members

#10
post #2

Just go to the “people you may know” page and you’ll see dozens of shadow profiles of people who clearly don’t have LinkedIn accounts. Mine shows relatives who I know don’t have accounts — but whose contact info was scraped by LinkedIn during my dumber years when I opted into their “help us connect you by linking your account” bullshit. Is there a way to request they remove this data? I sure don’t know how.

I brought this up to my mother who has been retired now for about 15 years but somehow still has a linkedin account. She never created one but somehow still had a profile, it freaked me out.
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