A US lawsuit alleges that the business networking social network LinkedIn «sneaky» changed users’ privacy settings, allowing their private messages to be shared with other companies to train artificial intelligence models.
A US lawsuit alleges that the business networking social network LinkedIn «sneaky» changed users’ privacy settings, allowing their private messages to be shared with other companies to train artificial intelligence models.
The BBC notes that these settings automatically connected users to a program that allowed third parties to use their personal data to train AI.
The lawsuit accuses LinkedIn of covering up its actions by changing its privacy policy to state that user information could be disclosed for the purpose of training AI. A LinkedIn spokesperson said that «these are false allegations that have no basis in fact.»
LinkedIn also changed its FAQ section to state that users can opt out of providing data for AI training, but this will not affect the pre-training of models.
«LinkedIn’s actions… indicate that the company is trying to cover its tracks. This behavior demonstrates that LinkedIn was fully aware that it had violated its contractual obligations and privacy standards, and sought to minimize public scrutiny,» the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit, filed in California federal court on behalf of a LinkedIn Premium user and «all others» who have been similarly affected, seeks $1,000 per user for alleged violations of U.S. federal data retention laws, as well as an unspecified amount for breach of contract and California unfair competition law.
According to an email LinkedIn sent to its users last year, it did not allow the sharing of user data for artificial intelligence purposes in the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland.
LinkedIn has more than a billion users worldwide, nearly a quarter of them in the U.S. The company generated $1.7 billion in revenue from premium subscriptions in 2023. It also said that the number of premium subscribers is growing rapidly as it continues to add more AI-powered features.
LinkedIn recently launched two new AI tools: Jobs Match for candidates and an AI agent for recruiters and hiring managers. Both are free, meaning you don’t need Premium to use the basic version of these tools.
