What you're agreeing to
LinkedIn can use your profile, photo, and name in ads and can share your professional data with third-party partners. Your content is licensed to LinkedIn permanently even after you delete your account. You cannot sue LinkedIn as part of a class and must arbitrate any disputes individually.
Privacy in plain English
LinkedIn collects your career history, salary signals, job search behavior, and every message you send, including the ones you draft but never send. Microsoft, which owns LinkedIn, can combine this data with your Office 365 usage and other Microsoft products. Your profile data is shared with recruiters and advertisers whether you are actively job hunting or not.
Terms of Service: Breakdown
This means your professional reputation is an asset LinkedIn monetizes without paying you.
Key Clauses- Content license: posts and articles you write on LinkedIn can be distributed, translated, and used in LinkedIn marketing even after you delete your account.
- Recruiter visibility: LinkedIn can share your profile with employers and recruiters even if you set yourself as not open to work, through features like Talent Insights.
- Microsoft data sharing: by agreeing to LinkedIn's terms, you also agree to data sharing across Microsoft's entire product ecosystem.
- advertisers can target you based on job title, company size, seniority, and inferred income.
Privacy Policy: Breakdown
This means LinkedIn and Microsoft together know more about your career than your own CV shows.
Red Flags- Unsent message logging: LinkedIn has been caught logging keystrokes in text fields, including messages you typed but never sent.
- Salary inference: LinkedIn infers your salary range from job title, location, and connections and sells this as a data product to recruiters and employers.
- Cross-Microsoft tracking: your LinkedIn data is shared with Microsoft's advertising network, tying your browsing in Edge and usage in Office 365 to your professional profile.
- HR software vendors, background check companies, and advertisers all access LinkedIn data through the API.
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