Live data from Hacker News

LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

interactually.com

171–180 of 215 posts

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#171
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why would it be creepy for someone using a social networking site to search for people they've met over the years?

Also, how much of the perceived "creepiness" of someone searching for someone on LinkedIn just a variation of this: http://thedoghousediaries.com/1042 ?

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a certain social network gives universal profile access to employees as a perk This is a rather insidious thing to say without naming the network, particularly in a comment on a post about a particular network. Which is it? I know that both Facebook and LinkedIn have similarly strict rules about what user data you can look at.

Throwaway because I learned this while NDAed (on-site interview for an internship over 4 years ago), but Facebook USED to allow employees universal profile access. I heard this from the recruiter who took all of us interviewees to lunch and showed us around, etc. - she said she had used it once to look up some dude she thought was creepy. I'm pretty sure they've since changed their policy. Not sure if OP was referrin…

That's pretty horrendous that a recruiter would mention that to you. I'd heard initially there was a master password for fixing things before they had a proper login/auditing setup for account access.

Didn't think people would actually be logging into accounts on a whim to check out users.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#173

There's a more benign answer to the creepy connection suggestions. LOTS of people import their email address books into linkedin. It's not a stretch to think that his girlfriend's mother (or some other relative) imported her address book that contained the names of both the OP and the girlfriend's stepfather. As far as the creepier name mismatches go, my oldest email address list has tons of maiden names and unused/d…

People forget about the amount of data LinkedIn has available to them: ConnectedHQ (the predecessor to LinkedIn Contacts) has direct access to thousands of email inboxes, Rapportive can log any time someone hovers over a new address, and millions of connections have been gleaned through 'import your contacts'.

If you really want to talk about creepy, I'm fairly sure they use your IP address to match against other people who live/work at the same location: when I created a test account with dummy information, the first contacts that were suggested to me were my roommates.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#174
post #75

Y'all know that I worked for Google. On this topic, I can only say good things about the place. When it comes to privacy and PII, Google holds itself to an extremely high standard. Many of these "social" innovations that are popping up on the market place were rejected out-of-hand at Google because it holds itself to an extremely high ethical standard regarding user data, as it actually respects them. I was shocked,…

Amen. The new endorsement feature is typically a sign of "how hard is this person looking for another job" which as a quality signal, may be inversely correlated with their capabilities. LinkedIn seems to be expanding as a magnet for scummy and crappy recruiters. Awesome strategy guys. I love getting unsolicited phone calls from clueless strangers. At least I can ignore emails. I think the business model for LinkedIn…

I've worried about endorsements as a negative signal also, but mostly because my mom keeps endorsing me for technologies that don't mean anything to her. :-)

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The endorsements on LinkedIn are useless. LinkedIn suggests things like "Endorse [So and So] for [some thing]," and people just click the "endorse" button. People that know nothing about technology have endorsed me for skills I don't have.

Agreed. Endorsements are largely a popularity contest. Sure, it is great that your connect [name] endorsed you for [skill]... That is helpful to know in some ways, but it is no way definitive on your ability. We're working on a system we think is slight better, based on getting credit for what you read, and hopefully one day what you know.

> Endorsements are largely a popularity contest.

That's the way I've been looking at the entire web these days - and not just social media. The Google page ranking algorithm really boils down to a (potentially high stakes) popularity contest.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#176
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Premium accounts still see it, though.

LI employee here. That's actually not correct. Premium accounts do not still see anonymous viewers.

I'm not sure exactly which accounts premium accounts can see have viewed their profile, but pretty sure all free accounts are included. Will get someone who has setting on anonymous to view my profile later and check, but for now there's only a couple of hidden names on there, looks like people who are more than 3 degrees away.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#177
post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Endorsements are largely a popularity contest. Sure, it is great that your connect [name] endorsed you for [skill]... That is helpful to know in some ways, but it is no way definitive on your ability. We're working on a system we think is slight better, based on getting credit for what you read, and hopefully one day what you know.

> Endorsements are largely a popularity contest. That's the way I've been looking at the entire web these days - and not just social media. The Google page ranking algorithm really boils down to a (potentially high stakes) popularity contest.

Not just the web though - our entire political system is one great big popularity contest.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#178
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's using a different name; I don't think I have a location set; and the only similar interest would be League of Legends, since I created the account initially just to get the free promo. The only thing I can think of is that it's matching IP addresses and concluding my two accounts are the same account.

Even when you log out of Facebook, it keeps some cookies around.It could be more than just IP address.

Different browser, too. :P

On the other hand, I'm not sure how well separated I kept those, so it could have been cookies linking the accounts. (I did this way back in 2010, so my memory is fuzzy.)

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#179
post #13
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…

"I think the creepy part about LinkedIn is you can actually see who views who."

Is it any creepier than being able to stalk some stranger's Facebook profile anonymously?

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#180
post #23

I just did a test and opened LinkedIn and took a look at the suggested people. They included: Several people with the same name as I (expected, not really creepy). But also: People that I trained martial arts with, and I NEVER exchanged electronic messages with them, and I do not talk with them for 4 years now. Also I doubt they remember me to search me, I am not much remarkable. People that I met at school and churc…

But also: People that I trained martial arts with, and I NEVER exchanged electronic messages with them, and I do not talk with them for 4 years now.

Well, if your instructor kept emails of all students in his personal address book, and he happened to share it with LinkedIn, then LinkedIn may deduce that each person on the list may be somehow connected to each other.

Post reply on HN