Is there an alternative to LinkedIn in that isn't (as) ethically dubious?
LinkedIn is not using email contacts to find people who have an account already
21–30 of 187 posts
Re: LinkedIn is not using email contacts to find people who have an account already
#22I know I'm a bitch for laughing that an article about Linked In inflating its usage figures is posted on Google+.
The irony wasn't missed. It was just the first place that sprung to mind to write at length on the topic.
Re: LinkedIn is not using email contacts to find people who have an account already
#23This is not the only underhanded practise from LinkedIn. I've had endorsements from people whom I know haven't logged into LinkedIn for years, including one from my partner who was sat next to me at the time and had even forgotten they had an old account there.
Re: LinkedIn is not using email contacts to find people who have an account already
#24Really surprised by all the comments here. This seems like a solid business decision by LinkedIn, riding the line of what a user is willing to accept and balancing it well with the potential rewards.
Look at every famous company and you'll find tactics that you don't agree with, and sometimes downright illegal (Path).
If you're not willing to do desperate things, to do what is necessary for user acquisition, good luck trying to build a successful business, because pure blind luck is exactly what you'll need.
Stuff like this is what really separates successful businesses from the failures. It was never about some grand vision, or some belief in connecting the world. It was about figuring out how to acquire users, retain them, and monetize.
Re: LinkedIn is not using email contacts to find people who have an account already
#25LinkedIn's copy is as misleading as the title of this post. LinkedIn doesn't "increase its user numbers" by doing this, i.e. they don't report these ghost accounts to wall st analysts or include them in userbase statistics. It's simply a question of disingenuous language on their site.
Re: LinkedIn is not using email contacts to find people who have an account already
#26> "LinkedIn allows you to sign in to your email account and it will scan your contacts..." Hand my contacts list to a website? No thank you. When is letting a website have this a good idea, not just Linkedin, but ever ?
Completely agree. I don't actually remember doing it and it's certainly something I do not do any more. I wasn't quite so security-conscious a few years ago.
> I don't actually remember doing it
This probably indicates a dark pattern at work ( http://darkpatterns.org/ ) - it was presented as a quick, default and normal action and/or of little consequence, when actually it's quite invasive.
You said that Linkedin would "scan your contacts to see if those people are on LinkedIn" and this is likely what it is presented as, but actually that information might be retained indefinitely and may be used for other purposes that are thought up later. But hey, it's just metadata, right?
Re: LinkedIn is not using email contacts to find people who have an account already
#27> "LinkedIn allows you to sign in to your email account and it will scan your contacts..." Hand my contacts list to a website? No thank you. When is letting a website have this a good idea, not just Linkedin, but ever ?
Anyone reading HackerNews qualifies as technically sophisticated, so I'm curious to ask:
- If you gave your email password to Linkedin or Facebook, did you change your email password immediately afterward?
- Are you very confident that Linkedin and Facebook wouldn't retain your password for future use or do some other mischief?
- Would you do the same thing again today?
Re: LinkedIn is not using email contacts to find people who have an account already
#28LinkedIn's copy is as misleading as the title of this post. LinkedIn doesn't "increase its user numbers" by doing this, i.e. they don't report these ghost accounts to wall st analysts or include them in userbase statistics. It's simply a question of disingenuous language on their site.
I'm not sure how anybody other than LinkedIn knows what they report but in any event I never said they did.
This practice leads registered users to attempt to connect with people who are not using LinkedIn. In effect, LinkedIn uses its user base to spam non-users with requests to create accounts.
The lie (this person has an account already) leads to a potential increase in user numbers via the emails that are triggered by the request to connect.
Re: LinkedIn is not using email contacts to find people who have an account already
#29Really surprised by all the comments here. This seems like a solid business decision by LinkedIn, riding the line of what a user is willing to accept and balancing it well with the potential rewards. Look at every famous company and you'll find tactics that you don't agree with, and sometimes downright illegal (Path). If you're not willing to do desperate things, to do what is necessary for user acquisition, good luc…
From their Mission and Core Values:
We operate on the basis of responsiveness, openness, honesty and trust with our members, business partners, employees and stockholders.
I won't quote other parts of it as it would simply hammer home the point - don't openly commit to things like this if your business practices do another.
Just stay quiet.
Re: LinkedIn is not using email contacts to find people who have an account already
#30I get this all the time on the "suggested connections" page - names and email addresses extracted from my Gmail contacts, but the name is not a link to a profile (on normal suggested connections you can click on the name to see their profiles). I could easily spot those and not request to connect but it can be confusing for non-technical people. What changed recently is that these fake profiles are also listed as hav…
Some people you connected with also had them in their address book?