{"id":14358,"date":"2019-02-28T15:17:50","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T15:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/linkedin-forced-to-pause-mentioned-in-the-news-feature-in-europe-after-complaints-about-id-mix-ups.html"},"modified":"2019-02-28T15:17:50","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T15:17:50","slug":"linkedin-forced-to-pause-mentioned-in-the-news-feature-in-europe-after-complaints-about-id-mix-ups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/linkedin-forced-to-pause-mentioned-in-the-news-feature-in-europe-after-complaints-about-id-mix-ups.html","title":{"rendered":"LinkedIn forced to \u2018pause\u2019 mentioned in the news feature in Europe after complaints about ID mix-ups"},"content":{"rendered":"

LinkedIn <\/a> has been forced to \u2018pause\u2019 a feature in Europe in which the platform emails members\u2019 connections when they\u2019ve been \u2018mentioned in the news\u2019.<\/p>\n

The regulatory action follows a number of data protection complaints after LinkedIn\u2019s algorithms incorrect matched members to news articles \u2014 triggering a review of the feature and subsequent suspension order.<\/p>\n

The feature appears as a case study in the \u2018Technology Multinationals Supervision\u2019 section of an annual report<\/a> published today by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC). Although the report does not explicitly name LinkedIn \u2014 but we\u2019ve confirmed it is the named professional social network.<\/p>\n

The data watchdog\u2019s report cites \u201ctwo complaints about a feature on a professional networking platform\u201d after LinkedIn incorrectly associated the members with media articles that were not actually about them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn one of the complaints, a media article that set out details of the private life and unsuccessful career of a person of the same name as the complainant was circulated to the complainant\u2019s connections and followers by the data controller,\u201d the DPC writes, noting the complainant initially complained to the company itself but did not receive a satisfactory response \u2014 hence taking up the matter with the regulator.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe <\/span>complainant stated that the article had been detrimental to their professional standing and had resulted in the loss of contracts for their business,\u201d it adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second complaint involved the circulation of an article that the complainant believed could be detrimental to future career prospects, which the data controller had not vetted correctly.\u201d<\/p>\n

LinkedIn appears to have been matching members to news articles by simple name matching \u2014 with obvious potential for identity mix-ups between people with shared names.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was clear from the complaints that matching by name only was insufficient, giving rise to data protection concerns, primarily the lawfulness, fairness and accuracy of the personal data processing utilised by the \u2018Mentions in the news\u2019 feature,\u201d the DPC writes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result of these complaints and the intervention of the DPC, the data controller undertook a review of the feature. The result of this review was to suspend the feature for EU-based members, pending improvements to safeguard its members\u2019 data.\u201d<\/p>\n

We reached out to LinkedIn with questions and it pointed us to this blog post<\/a> where it confirms: \u201cWe are pausing our Mentioned in the News feature for our EU members while we reevaluate its effectiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n

LinkedIn adds that it is reviewing the accuracy of the feature, writing:<\/p>\n

\n

As referenced in the Irish Data Protection Commission\u2019s report, we received useful feedback from our members about the feature and as a result are evaluating the accuracy and functionality of Mentioned in the News for all members.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The company\u2019s blog post also points users to a page<\/a> where they can find out more about the \u2018mentioned in the news\u2019 feature and get information on how to manage their LinkedIn email notification settings.<\/p>\n

The Irish DPC\u2019s action is not the first privacy strike against LinkedIn in Europe.<\/p>\n

Late last year<\/a>, in its early annual report, on the pre-GDPR portion of 2018, the watchdog revealed it had investigated complaints about LinkedIn related to it targeting non-users with adverts for its service.<\/p>\n

The DPC found the company had obtained emails for 18 million people for whom it did not have consent to process their data. In that case LinkedIn agreed to cease processing the data entirely.<\/p>\n

That complaint also led the DPC to audit LinkedIn. It then found a further privacy problem, discovering the company had been using its social graph algorithms to try to build suggested networks of compatible professional connections for non-members.<\/p>\n

The regulator ordered LinkedIn to cease this \u201cpre-compute processing\u201d of non-members\u2019 data and delete all personal data associated with it prior to GDPR coming into force.<\/p>\n

LinkedIn said it had \u201cvoluntarily changed our practices as a result\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n

LinkedIn violated data protection by using 18M email addresses of non-members to buy targeted ads on Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/T3ry0x9Z2is\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LinkedIn has been forced to \u2018pause\u2019 a feature in Europe in which the platform emails members\u2019 connections when they\u2019ve been \u2018mentioned in the news\u2019. The regulatory action follows a number <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,7,14,15,6,12,11],"class_list":["post-14358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-update","tag-computer-news","tag-downloads","tag-microsoft-download-news","tag-networking-updates","tag-technology-update","tag-wordpress-plugin-download","tag-wordpress-theme-download"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t