LinkedIn

Users register on LinkedIn with an email, which LinkedIn then scrapes their contacts list and uploads this information to LinkedIn.[[1]]( LinkedIn also makes it difficult to cancel their free trial membership, likely targeting users that have forgotten or are unable to locate the cancel page.[[2]]( LinkedIn has a habit of restricting accounts stating a need to verify identity, this disables the ability to navigate to the cancel membership page and can lead to being charged. LinkedIn automatically opts you into their program named "Data for Generative AI Improvement", or "GAI", which automatically says you agree to "Use my data for training content creation models."[[3]]( This comes with fine print which states, "This setting controls the training of generative AI models used to create content. When this setting is on LinkedIn and its affiliates may use your personal data and content you create on LinkedIn for that purpose." This automatically gives LinkedIn the license to use your personal data and the content you create to train their models. Even if you opt out, the personal data and content the platform has already used will not be deleted.[[4]]( Verifying a LinkedIn account (i.e. acquiring a blue checkmark) requires sending a full copy of the user's passport to a third party service provider, Persona . Biometric data of several kinds such as typing patterns are also collected by Persona. The company then retains the right to store the information, share it with third party data brokers and train AI on the passport and the passport photo. [[5]]( For users outside the United States, this also means that their personal and biometric data is sent to US servers, where they are accessible to US authorities. Some users have reported that the browser LinkedIn version disables the "Done" button at the end of the "Delete your account" flow.[[6]]( They had to modify source HTML via Source Inspector to close their account.[[7]]( Users that reported this error also reported that it exists since 2022, and it hasn't been fixed since then. 1. Modifying HTML, removing the "disabled" attribute from the button. 2. Some users reported that typing their password by hand helped make the button work. Others have appealed that it didn't work anyways.[[6]]( 3. Some users reported that using the phone app to close your account worked, even if you created yours through the browser version.[[8]](