Source: AFP
BUSINESS-minded social media site LinkedIn has followed in Facebook's footsteps with a massive under-the-radar privacy policy change.
Two months ago, LinkedIn changed its settings to allow it to mine data from personal profiles to be used in third-party advertisements.
But nobody noticed.
The privacy policy, which was last revised on June 16 this year, reveals the company "may sometimes pair an advertiser's message with social content from LinkedIn's network in order to make the ad more relevant".
"By providing social context we make it easy for our members to learn about products and services that the LinkedIn network is interacting with," it says.
In a nutshell, it means advertisers can now use the reputations of the service's members to sell products those members may not endorse.
The change went largely unnoticed until a post by US blogger Steve Woodruff titled "A Box You Want to Uncheck on LinkedIn".
�Read Mr Woodruff's blog for instructions on how to turn off "Social Advertising"
The move caused uproar among LinkedIn users with many claiming they were inadequately notified of the changes and comparing the site to Facebook.
"Closed my LinkedIn account. Being more like Facebook is not a plus," wrote @will_sargent on Twitter.
"Shaking my head at LinkedIn's 'Facebook-esque' auto opt-in third party advertising options. Just unchecked 4 different obscure boxes," wrote @heidigoseek
Mr Woodruff said the reaction may have been so strong because users felt the site had tried to sneak the changes in "under the radar".
"LinkedIn apparently failed to give people advance notice about the new default settings, which is what caused such a strong reaction," he told news.com.au
"Apparently people are pretty sensitive about this issue."
While LinkedIn told media outlets it had posted notifications of the change on its blog as well as running a banner ad, users contacted by news.com.au were not aware of either.
The new policy is opt-out, which means users must edit their preferences if they don't want personal data popping up in ads.
Steph, a management consultant who has been using LinkedIn since 2007, said she had put LinkedIn "in a different category" until the latest change.
"I expect this from most social networking sites," she told news.com.au.
"I assumed LinkedIn would be more professional in communicating its changes to users.
"I'm pretty annoyed that they can send me several emails on various subjects but cant notify their users on changes to the way they use our profile information."
LinkedIn has been contacted for comment.
esophageal cancer mitch daniels heart attack grill morganza spillway
0 comments:
Post a Comment