LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network • Hacker News Board

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#81

Post by discardorama » Fri, Apr 03, 2015, 4:48 PM UTC

boomzilla wrote: post #68

discardorama wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have multiple Facebook accounts (I created them for testing a long time ago). I use only 1 of them. But it's funny to see Facebook claiming that Account #2 sent a "friend request" to Account #3. And offering up the other accounts as "people you may know". The only commonality is the IP.

What do you think all the "data scientists" hired by these companies do? IP addresses (or IPGeo) is one strong signal that goes into the "people who you might know" model. One can argue how effective these models are, but it's quite likely that they are found to be useful, for some metrics that the companies care about, like user growth, revenue or whatever. It's also likely that negative sentiment on a forum like HN…

As a data scientist, I have always debated the efficacy of the IP address as an identifier. It could be useful, but used as-is, I think it is not that great a signal.

Just because a signal gets you some positive results, does not make it useful. You have to also look at the second-order effects. Does it creep out people? Does it make people less likely to use your service, thereby negating the positive effect of added connections?

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#82

Post by interactually » Fri, Apr 03, 2015, 4:50 PM UTC

msm23 wrote: post #32

The author pointed out that there is an additional Privacy Controls section in Groups, Companies & Applications as well as under Profile. However, there is yet another Privacy Controls section under Account. LinkedIn may use cookies and similar technologies on third party sites to understand my browsing interests and target ads and personalize services accordingly. If you're going to have a "Privacy Controls" section…

Author here: Thanks for pointing this out, the article is a couple years old. I like how vague this new bit is as well. I'm sure we'd never find out any details about these "similar technologies" or which "third party sites"

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#83

Post by kenrikm » Fri, Apr 03, 2015, 4:53 PM UTC

fps wrote: post #25

I had an interesting experience last year when I was working in a co-working space. I noticed that LinkedIn started suggesting to me the other people who were working in the same space. I had no verbal or virtual contact with these people, other than basic office small talk, but I never knew their name and they never knew mine. I mentioned it to them, and they all claimed they hadn't looked me up on LinkedIn, and tha…

When I moved into my apartment building (only 4 units) the first day linkedIn started asking me if I knew my neighbor (who happens to work at LinkedIn) even though we had not had any contact. Best guess was the linkedIn app knew we were in close proximity (wifi networks around?) and thought we must know each other. Yeah, creepy.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#84

Post by interactually » Fri, Apr 03, 2015, 4:59 PM UTC

Just a few more bits of creepiness that have happened since I wrote this article a couple years ago:

- My wife signed up for LinkedIn years ago with her work email but never added any connections. She got an email to her personal email address from LinkedIn saying "David Veldt is inviting you to join LinkedIn!" I have no permissions that I could find set to allow such a thing.

- Just in the past week, two people have requested to connect with me that I haven't seen in over 10 years and live a couple states away from. Our only "connection" is that we're Facebook friends. There's no way I'm in their contacts list. I find it highly unlikely that they've searched or viewed my profile because we have absolutely nothing in common.

- The thing lately that pisses me off the most is how much they're trying to get me to mindlessly give them access to my contact list. On the app, sometimes a screen pops up when I open it to "Find more connections" but turns out they want authorization for my address book. Same thing on the notifications; they show a notification in the connections icon which usually indicates someone wants to connect, but instead its just a generic "hey, we can find you more of these!" type of notification. Reminds me of the cartoons where the salesman keeps popping up from laundry hampers and behind trees.

Might be time for a follow-up article.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#85

Post by rcurry » Fri, Apr 03, 2015, 4:59 PM UTC

markbnj wrote: post #58

It may be the creepiest social network, but it is also the only network where I can be endorsed for skills I've forgotten I had by people I've forgotten I worked with.

We turned LinkedIn endorsements into a trivia game at one office:

"Hey Bob, do you know why owls can turn their heads 270 degrees?"

"Uh, because they can't move their eyes?"

That's a Wildlife Biology endorsement right there.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#86

Post by chatmasta » Fri, Apr 03, 2015, 5:13 PM UTC

jamiesonbecker wrote: post #52

proksoup wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gmail can be used with non gmail domains.

But gmail would show in the Received headers, right..

It would show google SMTP server if one received it in the inbox. I think that's always the case. As far as I know gmail cannot be a web client to external SMTP servers.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#87

Post by proksoup » Fri, Apr 03, 2015, 6:05 PM UTC

jamiesonbecker wrote: post #52

proksoup wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gmail can be used with non gmail domains.

But gmail would show in the Received headers, right..

Sorry for ignorance, I don't know what received headers are.

Would the same apply if the email you sent is "forwarded" automatically to another email address that you are unaware of?

Or by received headers you meant you get a reply back from the celebrity?

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#88

Post by jamiesonbecker » Fri, Apr 03, 2015, 6:44 PM UTC

proksoup wrote: post #87

jamiesonbecker wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But gmail would show in the Received headers, right..

Sorry for ignorance, I don't know what received headers are. Would the same apply if the email you sent is "forwarded" automatically to another email address that you are unaware of? Or by received headers you meant you get a reply back from the celebrity?

> Or by received headers you meant you get a reply back from the celebrity?

Yes, I received several replies back but that was the sole extent of our contact on the Internet or real life.

Received headers show the previous mail servers that the email passed through through on its way to you. There can be many; each server adds another.

See https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2822.txt § 3.6.7, "Trace fields" and Appendix A.4 for an example. (Or, press control-U in some mail clients to see the source of an email you received to see all the headers.)

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#89

Post by chatmasta » Fri, Apr 03, 2015, 6:50 PM UTC

proksoup wrote: post #87

jamiesonbecker wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But gmail would show in the Received headers, right..

Sorry for ignorance, I don't know what received headers are. Would the same apply if the email you sent is "forwarded" automatically to another email address that you are unaware of? Or by received headers you meant you get a reply back from the celebrity?

Adding to what jameisonbecker said, obviously every intermediary server can also strip, modify, or add any headers that existed when it received a mail, prior to forwarding it.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#90

Post by LoSboccacc » Fri, Apr 03, 2015, 8:10 PM UTC

dangerlibrary wrote: post #69

imroot wrote: post #31

I wish that LinkedIn had the ability to disable your profile. I'm not looking for a job, I'm not looking to connect with recruiters, and I really don't like the ability for one of my exes to publicly see where I'm working so that she can continue to harass me -- on the other hand, My LinkedIn Profile is around eight or nine years old at this point in time, and I've amassed a fair amount of connections, that I'd like…

You don't pay for LinkedIn. You are the product, and allowing you to hide your profile makes you a less valuable product to the customers (recruiters). Until paying customers start complaining that their response rates are too low because there are too many inactive/unresponsive profiles, this won't happen.

What I hate the most are the cheapskates recruiters that don't pay for premium and spam you connection request not being able to send direct mails.

I don't mind being connected with relevant offers, that's what I signed up for. But then there are those low rate recruiters sending shotgun requests, asking for connecting and then asking me to do their job (you know, that'if you know someone interested' part) with mass request that are not even close to my listed skillset.

I don't understand how people can benefit from employing them, if they can't even match skills too job most prospects sent to interviews will be a waste of time for both parties involved.