Mediaboss Marketing

The worlds most spam-prone website LinkedIn has had a sudden change of heart: It now wants you to beconcerned aboutCongress recent decision to allow broadband providers to sell your private browsing data to advertisers.

On Monday, LinkedIn sent out an email sponsoring an article written by Anurag Harsh, LinkedIns #1 Voice in Technology, titled Your Browser History Could Be for Sale Soon. Are You Concerned?

The article warns of the potential dangers of letting broadband providers sell your browsing data to others. What can someone with access to that kind of information do?Harshasked.

Your service provider could sell your personal information to the highest bidder; and not just your demographics, but also your user behavior. That very information is the bedrock of personalized advertising. Its why companies like Amazon are so successful, headded.

The people who wrote Public Service Announcementclearly missed the irony. LinkedIn has long been the king of spam, bogging down email inboxeswith irrelevantsuggestions and sponsoredrecommendations. In 2015, the company had to pay out $13 million because of its fondness for spamming users.

ViaTIME Magazine:

The suit originated in California in 2013, when LinkedIn users sued the company claiming its Add Connections feature hurt their professional reputation by relentlessly messaging their email contacts with requests to connect on LinkedIn, Fortune reports. In the complaint, users described being embarrassed by the emails and complained that it was very difficult to stop LinkedIn from sending more emails once the barrage had begun. The settlement affects users who signed up for LinkedIns Add Connections feature between September 2011 and October 2014.

The ironyfor LinkedIn doesntend here. Back in 2014, according to a lawsuit, the social media network was accused of secretly selling usersprofessional datathe exact thing LinkedIn is now ringing the alarm about.

Via The Recorder and Gawker:

According to the suit, LinkedIn can mine the information provided by users of its professional networking website to find potential references for job applicants without the applicants knowledge. Searches yield a list of the names and current job titles for potential references, along with the common employer they share with the applicant and time worked together.

The complaint claims that these reference lists amount to a consumer report under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and that LinkedIn fails to abide by safeguards required under the law.

In essence, LinkedIn has created a marketplace in consumer employment information, where it sells employment information, that may or may not be accurate, and that it has obtained in part from unwitting members, and without complying with the FCRA, write the plaintiffs lawyers at Greenwald Davidson in Boca Raton, Fla., and the Law Offices Todd M. Friedman in Beverly Hills. Plaintiffs are asking for statutory damages for willful violation of the FCRA, which run from $100 to $1,000 per violation.

But thanks, LinkedIn, for taking some time out from spamming us to give us a heads-up on Internet privacy.

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World's Most Annoying Social Network Wants You to Worry About Other Companies Selling Your Data - Heat Street