LinkedIn

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LinkedIn

Basic information
Founded	2002
Legal Structure	Subsidiary
Industry	Social Media
Also known as
Official website	https://linkedin.com/

LinkedIn is a social-media platform for professional networking, founded in 2002.

Summary

• It has been known for its dark patterns.

• Users register on LinkedIn with an email, which LinkedIn then scrapes their contacts list and uploads this information to LinkedIn.

• 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.

• 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's membership price has also quintupled from $10 per month in 2018 to $50 in 2024.

Data Privacy

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." 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.

As of 29 January 2025, LinkedIn FAQ mentions that it does "not currently train content-generating AI models on data from members located in Canada, the EU, EEA, UK, Switzerland, Hong Kong, or Mainland China."

As of 19 September 2025, LinkedIn banner announcement was sent to logged in users saying "Update to our terms and data use" "Starting November 3, 2025, we'll use some of your Linkedln data to improve the content-generating Al that enhances your experience, unless you opt out in your settings. We're also updating our terms. See what's new and how to manage your data. Learn more (Archived)". Specifically mentioned regions are Canada, the EU, EEA, UK, Switzerland and Hong Kong. Announcement described how previously excluded regions would now be included in the "Data for Generative AI Improvement".

Screenshot of Terms of service update at 19th Sep 2025

Account Verification

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.

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.

Account Deletion

Some users have reported that the browser LinkedIn version disables the "Done" button at the end of the "Delete your account" flow. They had to modify source HTML via Source Inspector to close their account. Users that reported this error also reported that it exists since 2022, and it hasn't been fixed since then.

Potential solutions:

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.
3. Some users reported that using the phone app to close your account worked, even if you created yours through the browser version.

Browser scanning and personal data mining

Fairlinked e.V. have discovered data mining operation from within your browser when visiting LinkedIn. BrowserGate exposes Microsoft's LinkedIn for allegedly conducting a massive, undisclosed spying operation by injecting malicious JavaScript into users' browsers to secretly scan and detect over 6,222 installed browser extensions without consent, in violation of the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA). It reveals how LinkedIn builds detailed individual and organizational profiles based on extensions indicating sensitive information such as political opinions, religious beliefs, disabilities, neurodivergence, job-seeking status, and even mapping which organizations use which competitor products, then aggregates this data while matching it to users' names, employers, and job titles.