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LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

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Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#51
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…

I'm pretty sure Facebook does this too. I moved cities and got a new job without using my network of friends to get it and I don't keep any [accurate] personal contact data on Facebook. Suddenly my boss and coworkers are suggested people I may know despite the only thing we shared in common w.r.t. Facebook is a set of IP addresses.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#53
post #3

Creepy experience from this week. We have hired someone for daycare, I only have exchanged a few mail with that person. And now, her husband is in "people I know". I don't have shared my mail credentials with Linkedin, but I assume she has, and since we are both in her contact list, Linkedin assumed we know each other. It is somewhat correct but creepy nonetheless. I am not going to add him but from my point of view,…

> I don't have shared my mail credentials with Linkedin, but I assume she has Unfortunately that's not the case, and it's much darker than this. Recently I was asked by a friend to open a profile for a non-existing character from her book. I had to create an email address to open a linkedin. A new email address. Never used. After creating profile I emailed this new account from my own email. Week later my profile sho…

Did you use your own ip address to sign up to linkedin?

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#54
I completely grok this discussion. Let me add a different perspective.

I work in a remote office with a very small number of keep-to-themselves colleagues. It's very common to arrive, spend 9 hours working, and leave for home w/o any dialogue other than a polite "how's it going?". In other words the place is dead.

The sales force is scattered around the world & doesn't need a lot of hand-holding. Our marketplace is a relative backwater, so there's not a lot "churn" to keep things interesting. (I'm a product guy. Interaction is like breathing.)

The bottom line is that I find myself with a lot spare time to explore & learn. My first choices are HN & Feedly, but I do enjoy finding colleagues from prior jobs - and the occasional high school / college friend - on LI. It definitely serves a remote-networking purpose for me.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#57
post #12

Is LinkedIn even a social network? Everyone I know uses it as basically a resume hosting site. I don't know of anyone who uses it for actually doing anything 'social' - just career related things.

You can use it to contact people (in a cold call manner) and propose them new business. I've use it successfully to make some pitches. You have to pay for that, though.

Re: LinkedIn: The Creepiest Social Network

#60
post #3

Creepy experience from this week. We have hired someone for daycare, I only have exchanged a few mail with that person. And now, her husband is in "people I know". I don't have shared my mail credentials with Linkedin, but I assume she has, and since we are both in her contact list, Linkedin assumed we know each other. It is somewhat correct but creepy nonetheless. I am not going to add him but from my point of view,…

> I don't have shared my mail credentials with Linkedin, but I assume she has Unfortunately that's not the case, and it's much darker than this. Recently I was asked by a friend to open a profile for a non-existing character from her book. I had to create an email address to open a linkedin. A new email address. Never used. After creating profile I emailed this new account from my own email. Week later my profile sho…

Many email providers automatically add people you email to your contacts list. If you'd provided LinkedIn access to your contacts (which many providers do), then its not a surprise that LinkedIn recommended the non-existent person.
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