LinkedIn is accused of sharing private messages between users and other companies in order to train artificial-intelligence models.
A US lawsuit filed by LinkedIn Premium users claims that the social media giant introduced a privacy setting in August 2024, which automatically opted users into a programme that allows third parties to use personal data for AI training.
The lawsuit accuses LinkedIn, owned by Microsoft of hiding its actions by changing its privacy policies a month after the fact to allow user data to be used for AI training.
LinkedIn told BBC that the claims were “false and without merit”.
According to the lawsuit, LinkedIn also changed its frequently-asked questions section, stating that users can choose to not share data with AI purposes, but this will not affect any training that has already been done.
In the lawsuit, LinkedIn was accused of a pattern in trying to hide its tracks. The lawsuit stated that LinkedIn’s behavior suggested that the company was aware of its breached privacy standards and contractual promises, and that they were trying to minimize public scrutiny.
LinkedIn’s email sent last year to users stated that it had not enabled the sharing of user data for AI purposes within the UK, European Economic Area, and Switzerland.
The filing was made in federal court in California on behalf of LinkedIn Premium users and other people who were facing a similar problem.
It is seeking $1,000 (PS812) for each user, as well as unspecified amounts for alleged breaches of the US federal Stored Communications Act and California’s unfair-competition law.
LinkedIn says that as AI features are added, the number of premium members is growing rapidly.
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