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I verified my LinkedIn identity. Here's what I handed over

thelocalstack.eu

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Re: I verified my LinkedIn identity. Here's what I handed over

#271
I've been getting "Emails aren’t getting through to one of your email addresses. Please update or confirm your email." -- even tho I get messages from them every day. When you press the button to confirm the (working) email it states "Something went wrong".

It happened last week too, I was able to fix it via their chat-help (human). Yesterday, their chat-help (human) was not able fix it and has to open a ticket. I pay for LinkedIn-Premium. So maybe this is just a scam to route me into Verification. Their help documents (https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a1423367) for verifying emails doesn't match the current user experience.

Then, in a classic tech-paradox, their phone support person told me they would email me -- on the same address their system reports emails are not getting through to. It felt like 1996 levels of understanding.

We need to get back to de-centralised.

Re: I verified my LinkedIn identity. Here's what I handed over

#272

Somehow the fundamentals of places like linkedin, gmail, google, facebook, etc have eluded people. 1. they are selling you as a target. 2. some people, governments, groups, whatever are willing to pay a lot of money to obtain information about you. 3. why would someone pay good money to target you unless they were going to profit from doing so. are they stupid? no. 4. where does that profit come from? If some one is…

> 1. they are selling you as a target.

This is why people sign up for LinkedIn.

They want to be targeted by companies for jobs. Or when they’re applying for a job, they want to be easily found by people at that company so they can see more information.

If you don’t want those things, you don’t need a LinkedIn page.

> Do the corporations that participate in this scheme provide mutual economic benefit? Do they contribute to the common wealth or are they parasitical?

You wrote a long hand wavey post but you stopped short of answering your own question.

The corporations who pay LinkedIn are doing so to recruit people for jobs. I’ve purchased LinkedIn premium for this purpose at different times.

After “targeting” those LinkedIn users, I eventually hired some of them for jobs. There’s your mutual economic benefit. This is why people use LinkedIn.

> It is a long causal change, so it is fair to ask whether there is any empirical evidence. If this is true we would expect to see ...? Well how about prices going up? Well how about in general people are less able to afford housing, food, cars, etc.

You think the root cause of inflation is… social media companies? This is an extraordinary claim that requires extraordinary evidence. You’re just observing two different things and convinced they’re correlated, while ignoring the obvious rebuttal that inflation existed and affordability changes happened before social media.

> Somehow the fundamentals of places like linkedin, gmail, google, facebook, etc have eluded people.

I think most people understand the fundamentals of LinkedIn better than you do, to be honest. It’s not a mystery why people sign up and maintain profiles.

Re: I verified my LinkedIn identity. Here's what I handed over

#273

You still have a linkedin? Isn't that just all ai slop?

His blog is AI slop.

Previous article: https://thelocalstack.eu/posts/ai-chatbot-gdpr-data-request/

All from a single blog post:

> that’s not just text, that’s biometric data.

> This isn’t a chat log. It’s a structured psychological profile.

> Not raw conversations — processed insights about who I am, how I think, what I fear, and what motivates me.

> They’re not just storing what you said — they’re analyzing who you are.

> They’re not just answering questions — they’re building a map of what you’re curious about, what you’re planning, what you’re worried about.

> Not because I trusted it — but because it was convenient not to think about trust at all.

> A profile this detailed isn’t just a record. It’s a tool.

> The oracle isn’t neutral. The oracle is taking notes.

> Not because I’m paranoid — because it’s true.

> Do it. Not because you need to delete everything — but because you should know what “free” or even “paid” really costs.

While copying and pasting all of this I read this at the end:

> I need to be honest about something: I wrote this post with an AI. Not just edited by AI. Written with it.

Wouldn't fool anyone anyway

Re: I verified my LinkedIn identity. Here's what I handed over

#274
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My assumption was that it was an intelligence platform first. Just like Skype, Microsoft decided to randomly buy it. It amazing really. If you reached out to people and asked them for the information and graph that LinkedIn maintains, most employers would fire them.

> My assumption was that it was an intelligence platform first. What do you mean by "intelligence platform"?

"Spyware" doesn't quite capture it.

It's "intelligence platform" in the sense that you can gain a ton of information on individuals, organizations, and relationships that drive it all. If you can track how people move and interact between organizations, you can determine who someone is doing business with and even make an educated guess if that's a sale or interview.

I started writing about it almost 20 years ago: https://caseysoftware.com/blog/linkedin-intelligence-part-ii and turned it into a conference presentation called "Shattering Secrets with Social Media"

But there have been numerous proofs of concept over the years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Sage

Re: I verified my LinkedIn identity. Here's what I handed over

#276
post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good example of why it's insane that nobody at Mozilla cares that they hire CEOs that have only a LinkedIn page. If you want to visit the website of the Mozilla CEO, you have to create an account and log in. No big deal if it's a CEO of a plastics manufacturing company, but when the mission is fighting against the behavior of companies like LinkedIn, it makes me wonder why Mozilla exists.

The CEO role at Mozilla is unstable. Even if Mozilla didn't require a LinkedIn page, chances are their CEOs would have an up to date account. Also, Mozilla's ARR is mostly their Google partnership.

If you visit the Mozilla website right now, you will see "Break free from big tech — our products put you in control of a safer, more private internet experience."

Re: I verified my LinkedIn identity. Here's what I handed over

#277
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their use of LinkedIn is for local and semi-local professional networks. It's like if you use Nextdoor for your street. And of course those Europeans use LinkedIn for the network effect (even though LinkedIn is just a pathetic sad dead mall now, so most are doing so for an illusion), because other prior waves of Europeans also used LinkedIn, and so on. Domestic or regional alternatives falter because everyone demands…

I would prefer to live in a free country, where I can choose my services from among a couple of options. But the government you appeal to should install and execute laws to protect citizens by forcing foreign players to abide by local rulse or be forced to declare that they are not, in large red letters so no-one can say they did not know (legalese small-print does not suffice as we know).

>I would prefer to live in a free country…

Well if you’re in a country Trump has threatened to invade, or already invaded, having a free country might require banning these American companies.

Re: I verified my LinkedIn identity. Here's what I handed over

#278
post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CEO role at Mozilla is unstable. Even if Mozilla didn't require a LinkedIn page, chances are their CEOs would have an up to date account. Also, Mozilla's ARR is mostly their Google partnership.

If you visit the Mozilla website right now, you will see "Break free from big tech — our products put you in control of a safer, more private internet experience."

Marketing slogans are just that, words that sound good.

Better look at their actions than take their slogans at face value. Applies to everyone

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