LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network • Hacker News Board

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#11

Post by Caerus » Thu, May 09, 2013, 3:35 PM UTC

Facebook does the same thing and it's just as creepy.

I closed my "real" account around 2011. A few months back I created a new blank account because I needed access to a couple organization's pages. The only information on that account is my name (a fairly common one) and an email address which is different from the one on my original account. It's possible they have some geographic info linking the two accounts as I closed and opened them from the same city.

90% of the "people you may know" are correct and from dramatically different social groups. Some how it's picked out a girl I did a family stay with in Germany in '04, a fourth cousin I'm only vaguely aware of, current friends from several groups, and high school friends I haven't talked to in 10 years.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#12

Post by joelandren » Thu, May 09, 2013, 3:37 PM UTC

Yes, I also noted the creepiness of "viewers of the profile also viewed."

https://twitter.com/joelandren/status/251417778643406848

If I were a woman, I would be turned off to see something like this.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#13

Post by anon987 » Thu, May 09, 2013, 3:38 PM UTC

dmbass wrote: post #5

I always assumed the suggestions were from other people importing their Twitters and email contacts. So if person A emails me and then imports their emails, Linkedin can suggest to both of us that we might know each other, increasing the chance of creating a connection (and creepy-ness factor for me).

I'm pretty sure that's the case. I got suggestions for 2 people I played WoW with and the only ways we communicated were in-game chat, voice chat, and we had a single e-mail chain where we (the officers) talked about....something, I forget what. I'm guessing one of them imported their mail contacts because I doubt LinkedIn has visibility into Blizzard's social network or private voice chat servers.

I think the creepy part about LinkedIn is you can actually see who views who. If Facebook did that it would be very embarrassing for a lot of people.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#14

Post by hollerith » Thu, May 09, 2013, 3:39 PM UTC

geetee wrote: post #8

LinkedIn recently suggested my neighbor from 1995. I didn't even have Internet access, let alone an email address back then. I haven't had any contact with this person since.

My guess is the neighbor put your name in LinkedIn's search box.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#15

Post by geetee » Thu, May 09, 2013, 3:40 PM UTC

hollerith wrote: post #14

geetee wrote: post #8

LinkedIn recently suggested my neighbor from 1995. I didn't even have Internet access, let alone an email address back then. I haven't had any contact with this person since.

My guess is the neighbor put your name in LinkedIn's search box.

Most likely. I'm not sure if that makes him or LinkedIn creepier.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#16

Post by rcoh » Thu, May 09, 2013, 3:43 PM UTC

For a while, Linked in was present a password input box that looked like "You failed to login, try again" at a glance, but in reality it was asking for your email address and password. From that point, they could read your email and extract all your contacts.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#17

Post by vidarh » Thu, May 09, 2013, 3:45 PM UTC

joelandren wrote: post #12

Yes, I also noted the creepiness of "viewers of the profile also viewed." https://twitter.com/joelandren/status/251417778643406848 If I were a woman, I would be turned off to see something like this.

Yeah, I've noticed that quite often. If you happen onto the profile of pretty much any woman that's above average attractive (and quite a few that aren't) you get that. I don't think the same is case for the men, though perhaps I'm just blind to what women finds attractive in men...

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#18

Post by jere » Thu, May 09, 2013, 3:47 PM UTC

Here are some things I find more creepy about LinkedIn:

-It tells people when I view their profile. So now I never view people's profiles because I don't want to look like a stalker. Imagine if Facebook worked this way.

-An andecdote, but maybe you've experienced it: a guy I worked with about 3 years ago (and only for 2 weeks) has "endorsed" me several times recently. I don't know if this is some kind of quid pro quo, but it makes me somewhat uncomfortable.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#19

Post by nsoun » Thu, May 09, 2013, 3:48 PM UTC

jere wrote: post #18

Here are some things I find more creepy about LinkedIn: -It tells people when I view their profile. So now I never view people's profiles because I don't want to look like a stalker. Imagine if Facebook worked this way. -An andecdote, but maybe you've experienced it: a guy I worked with about 3 years ago (and only for 2 weeks) has "endorsed" me several times recently. I don't know if this is some kind of quid pro quo…

You can disable the option in your profile settings to not show when you've viewed someones contact info, however, this means you'll no longer know who the people are the view your profile.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#20

Post by smutticus » Thu, May 09, 2013, 3:50 PM UTC

hollerith wrote: post #14

geetee wrote: post #8

LinkedIn recently suggested my neighbor from 1995. I didn't even have Internet access, let alone an email address back then. I haven't had any contact with this person since.

My guess is the neighbor put your name in LinkedIn's search box.

That or they have information on where you and your neighbor once lived. I have signed up for a couple of online brokerage accounts where they ask me questions about where I or my family have lived in the past.

I got questions like; "At which of these 5 addresses has $BROTHER ever lived before?" And one of them was correct.