Nowadays, there’s no telling how many of the companies we trust are scraping our data under our noses to train AI models. We never find out until they’re caught with their hands in the cookie jar. One of the most popular job search platforms and social media sites actually lets us know that it scrapes our data, but there’s a caveat. LinkedIn scraped our data before updating its privacy policy. This could put it in hot water.
The fact that LinkedIn is scraping our data should come as no surprise for two reasons. Firstly, just about every company on Earth, and probably other planets in the solar system, has started scraping data to train AI models. Remember, “AI is the future!” Secondly, LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft, one of the most AI-crazy companies on the market.
This is a sour blow for people who are looking for work on the platform. LinkedIn has supported and helped human workers for years, so it’s a bit ironic that it’s using those human workers’ data to train AI models.
LinkedIn scraped data before updating its privacy policy
A company’s privacy policy is a way for it to be transparent about what’s going on with your data. While many people don’t really read this information, there are those who are always keeping an eye on them. It’s a gesture of trust. So, if the company does anything not indicated in that policy, it can feel like a betrail.
LinkedIn updated its policy to let you know that your data is being scraped, so there shouldn’t be an issue. However, according to the report, it appears that LinkedIn might have started scraping the data before updating the policy. If that’s the case, then it would have technically violated its policy.
Recently, several users reported that LinkedIn was using its users’ data to train its AI model, but they didn’t see the update in the policy yet. 404Media reached out to the company for comment, and it said that it would update it “shortly”. So, LinkedIn was training its model on its users’ data without updating the policy initially.
How to stop LinkedIn from using your data
You can stop LinkedIn from scooping up your data, but this is bittersweet news. If you’re in the U.S., you can opt out of having LinkedIn using your data, but you don’t have that option in some other regions. Unfortunately, if you’re in the EU, for example, you don’t have the option.
If you do have the option, you’ll see it in the Data Privacy section of your settings. Go to the Data for Generative AI Improvement section. There, you’ll see a toggle that will stop the flow of data from getting to LinkedIn. One thing to know is that, if you flip this switch, LinkedIn will still retain the information it’s already collected on you. You’ll need to use the desktop version, not the app.
Should there be consequences?
Yes! There should be some sort of fine or slap on the wrist for LinkedIn. We live in a world where more companies are scraping our data, and we don’t like it. The staff at LinkedIn should have known that scraping our data without our knowledge would upset us. Also, how long was the company going to secretly scrape users’ data before getting caught? If no one found out, would the company have updated the policy at all?
There should be some sort of repercussion for this; not to punish the company, but to set an example for other companies that do this. Whether this was intentional or if the LinkedIn staff just forgot, there were people who had their data scraped without their knowledge.
