A US lawsuit filed on behalf of LinkedIn Premium users accuses the social media platform of sharing their private messages with other companies for the purpose of training artificial intelligence (AI) models.
In August last year, the world’s largest professional social networking website is said to have “quietly” introduced a privacy setting, automatically selecting users for a program that allowed third parties to use their personal data to train artificial intelligence.
It also accuses the Microsoft-owned company of covering up its actions a month later by changing its privacy policy to say user data could be disclosed for AI training purposes.
A LinkedIn spokesperson told BBC News that “these are false claims with no basis”.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in California on behalf of LinkedIn Premium users and “anyone else” in a similar situation.
The filing also said that LinkedIn changed its ‘frequently asked questions’ section to say that users can choose not to share data for AI purposes, but that this will not affect training that has already taken place.
“LinkedIn’s actions … indicate a pattern of attempts to cover their tracks,” the lawsuit says.
“This behavior suggests that LinkedIn was fully aware that it had violated its contractual promises and privacy standards and that it aimed to minimize public scrutiny.”
According to an email LinkedIn sent to its users last year, it has not enabled the sharing of user data for artificial intelligence purposes in the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland.
Additional reporting by Lily Jamali
