The social networking site is accused in a US complaint brought on behalf of LinkedIn Premium users of disclosing their private messages to other parties in order to train artificial intelligence (AI) models.
It claims that the biggest professional social networking site in the world “quietly” added a privacy setting in August of last year, allowing users to be automatically enrolled in a program that permitted third parties to utilize their personal information to train artificial intelligence.
Additionally, it charges the Microsoft-owned business with hiding its activities a month later by amending its privacy statement to allow for the disclosure of user data for AI training.
The BBC News reported that “these are false claims with no merit” from a LinkedIn representative.
Additionally, according to the petition, LinkedIn modified its “frequently asked questions” section to state that users could opt out of sharing data for AI purposes, but that doing so would not impact previously completed training.
“LinkedIn’s actions… indicate a pattern of attempting to cover its tracks,” the complaint stated.
“This behaviour suggests that LinkedIn was fully aware that it had violated its contractual promises and privacy standards and aimed to minimise public scrutiny” .
On behalf of a LinkedIn Premium member and “all others” in a comparable circumstance, the action was submitted to a federal court in California.
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In addition to an undisclosed sum for breach of contract and California’s unfair competition legislation, it is requesting $1,000 (£812) per user for alleged violations of the US federal Stored Communications Act.
LinkedIn has not permitted user data exchange for AI purposes in the UK, the European Economic Area, or Switzerland, per an email it issued to its users last year.
Nearly a quarter of LinkedIn’s one billion users worldwide are in the United States.
Premium subscriptions brought in $1.7 billion for the corporation in 2023.
Additionally, it claims that as it keeps adding new AI functions, the number of premium customers has been rising quickly.
SOURCE: BBC
