LinkedIn is one of the most popular professional social networking sites, with over 700 million users worldwide. It allows users to create professional profiles, connect with colleagues and business contacts, join industry groups, and search for jobs. However, there are ongoing concerns about how much personal data LinkedIn collects and what they do with it. In this article, we’ll examine the key privacy risks of using LinkedIn and provide tips on how to use it more safely.
What Personal Data Does LinkedIn Collect?
When you create a LinkedIn profile, you have to provide certain information including:
- Full name
- Email address
- Job history
- Education
- Skills
- Photo
Additionally, LinkedIn collects data on your interactions within the platform, such as your connections, groups joined, content viewed, and search history. They use tracking technologies like cookies and pixels to gather data on your browsing behavior both on and off the LinkedIn site.
Some of the specific types of data LinkedIn may collect:
- Contact info – email, phone number, physical address
- Demographic info – age, gender, job title
- Interests and hobbies
- Employers
- Education history
- Skills and endorsements
- Connections and relationships
- Posts, comments, and reactions
- Groups joined
- Job seeking activity
- Browsing history and search queries
- Location data
- Device info and identifiers
This gives LinkedIn an extensive view into its users’ professional lives and personal details that could be used to build detailed profiles for ad targeting or other purposes.
How Does LinkedIn Use Your Data?
According to LinkedIn’s privacy policy, they use your personal data for the following purposes:
- Provide and improve their services
- Create customized content such as suggestions for connections or jobs
- Enable communications between users
- Deliver relevant ads and measure their effectiveness
- Conduct research to improve their services
- Prevent fraud, misuse, and protect user data
LinkedIn states that they do not sell personal data to third party vendors. However, they do use data to serve targeted advertising within the platform. LinkedIn members can see why they are being shown specific ads and customize their ad preferences.
While LinkedIn itself may not sell data directly, privacy advocates have raised concerns around their parent company Microsoft and how data flows between LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Azure advertising services. There is apprehension that Microsoft could use LinkedIn data to supplement profiles and target ads on other Microsoft platforms.
LinkedIn Data Breaches
LinkedIn has experienced some data breaches over the years:
- In 2012, nearly 6.5 million user passwords were leaked online through LinkedIn servers. These passwords were encrypted but security experts said they were easy to crack.
- In 2016, 117 million LinkedIn email addresses and passwords were sold on the dark web. The data was from the 2012 breach.
- In 2021, 500 million LinkedIn user profiles were found for sale on the dark web. The scraped profiles included email addresses, phone numbers, genders, links to social media profiles, and more.
While no social media platform is completely immune to data scraping, LinkedIn’s response to these incidents has been criticized. Users were not notified on a timely basis and LinkedIn downplayed the number of accounts impacted.
These breaches and scraping incidents put user data and privacy at risk. Hackers could use email addresses for phishing scams or exposed passwords to access other online accounts.
LinkedIn’s Privacy Settings
LinkedIn does offer some privacy settings to allow users to limit sharing:
- Profile visibility – Set profile to private so only connections can view.
- Activity broadcasts – Turn off ability for connections to see when you view profiles, make connections, etc.
- Ad preferences – Manage preferences for personalized ads.
- Data privacy – Request data download or deletion.
However, some experts argue these settings are difficult to navigate and don’t necessarily stop data collection. LinkedIn’s infrastructure and algorithms are designed to maximize data acquisition and engagement.
How to Use LinkedIn More Privacy-Consciously
Here are some tips on using LinkedIn while minimizing privacy risks:
- Be selective in what information you add to your profile, only include what is necessary for your professional purposes.
- Review profile settings and set to private mode to limit visibility.
- Disable activity broadcasting and customized ads.
- Don’t connect with people you don’t know or trust.
- Use a professional photo rather than a casual personal photo.
- Be mindful of posts, comments, and groups you engage with.
- Don’t click on suspicious links or messages.
- Use strong and unique passwords.
- Limit sharing connections with other apps or sites.
- Browse in private or incognito mode when possible.
Following these tips can help maintain privacy standards without sacrificing LinkedIn’s core professional networking capabilities.
Alternatives to LinkedIn
For those looking to move away from LinkedIn altogether, some alternative professional social networks include:
- Xing – European based, focuses on established professionals.
- Viadeo – Also based in Europe, popular in France.
- Cammunity – App based network targeted to business professionals.
- F6S – Startup and tech focused platform.
- Angellist – Popular with tech talent and startups.
However, none of these sites have the same level of widespread adoption and reputation as LinkedIn. And all social platforms pose some degree of privacy risk. Many professionals maintain minimal LinkedIn profiles specifically for job search purposes, while limiting broader usage.
Conclusion
While LinkedIn provides useful professional networking tools, users must weigh the benefits against privacy considerations. LinkedIn’s data collection policies and track record of breaches justifiably raise concerns for many privacy advocates. Users should employ privacy best practices and utilize settings to limit data sharing. Alternatively, some may opt to restrict LinkedIn access or use other specialized networks. There are steps professionals can take to use LinkedIn safely, but ultimately its infrastructure is geared more toward data gathering than privacy protection. Users should make informed choices about what information they share publicly and how actively they engage on the platform. Moderation and vigilance are key to getting the most out of LinkedIn while prioritizing personal privacy.