By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) – Microsoft’s LinkedIn has been sued by Premium users who say the business-focused social media platform exposed their private messages to third parties without permission to train generative artificial intelligence models.
According to a proposed class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday night on behalf of millions of LinkedIn Premium users, LinkedIn quietly introduced a privacy setting last August that allows users to enable or disable the sharing of their personal information.
Customers said LinkedIn then discreetly updated its privacy policy on Sept. 18 to say the data could be used to train AI models, and a “frequently asked questions” hyperlink said the opt-out “does not affect training that has already taken place.”
This attempt to “cover its tracks” suggests that LinkedIn was fully aware that it had violated customer privacy and promised to use personal data only to support and improve its platform, to minimize public scrutiny and legal ramifications, the complaint said.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Jose, California on behalf of LinkedIn Premium users who sent or received InMail messages and whose private information was disclosed to third-party AI training providers before September 18.
It seeks unspecified damages for breach of contract and violations of California’s unfair competition law, and $1,000 per person for violations of the federal Stored Communications Act.
In a statement, LinkedIn said, “These are false claims without merit.”
The plaintiff’s attorney did not immediately have additional comments.
The lawsuit was filed hours after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a joint venture between Microsoft-backed OpenAI, Oracle (NYSE: ) and SoftBank (TYO: ), with a potential investment of $500 billion, to build artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States States.
The case is De La Torre v. LinkedIn Corp, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 25-00709.
