Some LinkedIn customers have alleged the social networking company has hacked their e-mail accounts and downloaded their e-mail addresses. Here’s what Bloomberg had to say:
The customers, who aim to lead a group suit against LinkedIn, asked a federal judge in San Jose, California, to bar the company from repeating the alleged violations and to force it to return any revenue stemming from its use of their identities to promote the site to non-members, according to a court filing.
“LinkedIn’s own website contains hundreds of complaints regarding this practice,” they said in the complaint filed Sept. 17, which also seeks unspecified damages.
Well, if this sounds familiar, you might recall that I brought you this story about another LinkedIn issue where an ex-flame got invites from her ex-boyfrend. Now the company didn’t waste any time in terms of firing back:
Doug Madey, a spokesman for Mountain View, California-based LinkedIn, said the lawsuit is without merit and the company will fight it.
“LinkedIn is committed to putting our members first, which includes being transparent about how we protect and utilize our members’ data,” he said yesterday in an e-mail.
But here’s what users have seen:
Jeffrey Barr of Livingston, New Jersey, said in an e-mail that he estimated LinkedIn used as many as 200 names and e-mail addresses of his contacts, inviting them to connect with him on the site.
“Some of the people I hadn’t talked to in five to 10 years, including several old girlfriends I had forgotten to delete,” he said.
LinkedIn told him he hadn’t unchecked a default setting allowing it to use the e-mails, he said.
According the complaint, it was part of LinkedIn’s growth initiative also to send multiple e-mails endorsing its products, services, and brand to potential new users, following up with additional messages to people who didn’t sign on.
The existing users have no way to stop the process, the plaintiffs said.
“These ‘endorsement e-mails’ are sent to e-mail addresses taken from LinkedIn users’ external e-mail accounts including the addresses of spouses, clients, opposing counsel, etc.,” according to the complaint.
The actions were taken even though LinkedIn assures its users when they log in, “We will not e-mail anyone without your permission,” the plaintiffs said.
I have personally seen this in action. I have had people who I haven’t heard from in ages getting invites from me to connect to me from LinkedIn. The only way LinkedIn would have been able to get these e-mail addresses is if they trolled my address book despite the fact that I’ve never given them permission to do so. Now upon reading this, I have terminated my LinkedIn profile. I simply don’t trust them anymore.
I’ll be watching this lawsuit because if the plaintiffs can prove their claims, LinkedIn needs to be held completely accountable.
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This entry was posted on September 21, 2013 at 9:05 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags LinkedIn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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LinkedIn Customers Say Their E-Mail Was Hacked By LinkedIn
Some LinkedIn customers have alleged the social networking company has hacked their e-mail accounts and downloaded their e-mail addresses. Here’s what Bloomberg had to say:
The customers, who aim to lead a group suit against LinkedIn, asked a federal judge in San Jose, California, to bar the company from repeating the alleged violations and to force it to return any revenue stemming from its use of their identities to promote the site to non-members, according to a court filing.
“LinkedIn’s own website contains hundreds of complaints regarding this practice,” they said in the complaint filed Sept. 17, which also seeks unspecified damages.
Well, if this sounds familiar, you might recall that I brought you this story about another LinkedIn issue where an ex-flame got invites from her ex-boyfrend. Now the company didn’t waste any time in terms of firing back:
Doug Madey, a spokesman for Mountain View, California-based LinkedIn, said the lawsuit is without merit and the company will fight it.
“LinkedIn is committed to putting our members first, which includes being transparent about how we protect and utilize our members’ data,” he said yesterday in an e-mail.
But here’s what users have seen:
Jeffrey Barr of Livingston, New Jersey, said in an e-mail that he estimated LinkedIn used as many as 200 names and e-mail addresses of his contacts, inviting them to connect with him on the site.
“Some of the people I hadn’t talked to in five to 10 years, including several old girlfriends I had forgotten to delete,” he said.
LinkedIn told him he hadn’t unchecked a default setting allowing it to use the e-mails, he said.
According the complaint, it was part of LinkedIn’s growth initiative also to send multiple e-mails endorsing its products, services, and brand to potential new users, following up with additional messages to people who didn’t sign on.
The existing users have no way to stop the process, the plaintiffs said.
“These ‘endorsement e-mails’ are sent to e-mail addresses taken from LinkedIn users’ external e-mail accounts including the addresses of spouses, clients, opposing counsel, etc.,” according to the complaint.
The actions were taken even though LinkedIn assures its users when they log in, “We will not e-mail anyone without your permission,” the plaintiffs said.
I have personally seen this in action. I have had people who I haven’t heard from in ages getting invites from me to connect to me from LinkedIn. The only way LinkedIn would have been able to get these e-mail addresses is if they trolled my address book despite the fact that I’ve never given them permission to do so. Now upon reading this, I have terminated my LinkedIn profile. I simply don’t trust them anymore.
I’ll be watching this lawsuit because if the plaintiffs can prove their claims, LinkedIn needs to be held completely accountable.
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This entry was posted on September 21, 2013 at 9:05 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags LinkedIn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.