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Linkedin is just a sum of so many dark patters... I mean really, take Facebook. Does it suck in some ways? Yes. Does it set the privacy defaults a bit more len

Linkedin is just a sum of so many dark patters... I mean really, take Facebook. Does it suck in some ways? Yes. Does it set the privacy defaults a bit more lenient than my own preferences? Sure.. but I use it and I've found it trivially easy to grasp some of its privacy basics, and set the settings according to my wishes, such that it's usable within my privacy wishes. Further, they've at various times prompted me to look into my privacy settings. All of this has been under enormous scrutiny and pressure, they're no saints... but for me it's a reasonable product in my own experience. If need be, I wouldn't feel bad about closing my FB account because it'd mean FB just wasn't for me, rather than FB is trying to screw me left and right and I need to get out. Linkedin is very much unlike that, every interaction I have with it says 'close your account because you don't know what the hell Linkedin is doing', and I've not logged on in at least half a year because I fear what kind of alerts and notifications they'll send to my network on the basis of me visiting a few pages there. Like when I turned off 'see who visited my profile', so that I could turn off 'let people see I visited their profile'. A few days later I check my best friends' linkedin because I was updating mine and looking for inspiration, and he jokingly messages me I'm stalking him on linkedin. I couldn't care less he saw that, he's my best friend, but what the f, I just turned that feature off? It's just an accumulation of stuff like that where I've completely lost my trust. > If "being creepy" is their core business model then they are a great success! Totally my experience. And I'm even one of those people who's pretty good at bs options, like a tiny remark that give permission for linkedin to email your entire gmail contact list (i.e. anyone you ever conversed with, like say a guy from craigslist you bought a fishbowl from 7 years ago). Even then I feel like Linkedin is just screwing me in broad daylight while I'm paying my utmost attention.

caseyf7 11y ago
Yeah, they actually sell the ability to see who visited your page even if they have privacy turned on.
- sokoloff 11y ago
  So create a second profile... (I get that you might naturally expect/want that you could use your main profile with some special bit set, but given that the workaround is so trivial, the pragmatist in me has trouble working up a lot of anger over it.)
  - robin_reala 11y ago
    Or just don’t create a profile in the first place?
  - eru 11y ago
    It's more the violation of trust (also trust in reliability and predictability) that annoys people.
mikestew 11y ago
If I might summarize your on-point comment with what came to mind when I went to go accept an invite from an ex-colleague who I like: LinkedIn has gotten to the point that I'm afraid to click anything on their site. I normally avoid LinkedIn, and I was reminded why: before I click on anything, I wonder "what are the potential consequences of this? If I click "Accept", what other unspoken contracts am I agreeing to, such as all of my connections being notified that I'm now connected to Chellsea?" It then occurred to me that maybe I should not use web sites that make me feel that way. Yeah, I'm a little behind the curve sometimes. But whether I'm the customer or recruiters are, I don't see how that's a sustainable business long-term.

caseyf7 11y ago

Yeah, they actually sell the ability to see who visited your page even if they have privacy turned on.

sokoloff 11y ago
So create a second profile... (I get that you might naturally expect/want that you could use your main profile with some special bit set, but given that the workaround is so trivial, the pragmatist in me has trouble working up a lot of anger over it.)
- robin_reala 11y ago
  Or just don’t create a profile in the first place?
- eru 11y ago
  It's more the violation of trust (also trust in reliability and predictability) that annoys people.

mikestew 11y ago

If I might summarize your on-point comment with what came to mind when I went to go accept an invite from an ex-colleague who I like: LinkedIn has gotten to the point that I'm afraid to click anything on their site. I normally avoid LinkedIn, and I was reminded why: before I click on anything, I wonder "what are the potential consequences of this? If I click "Accept", what other unspoken contracts am I agreeing to, such as all of my connections being notified that I'm now connected to Chellsea?" It then occurred to me that maybe I should not use web sites that make me feel that way. Yeah, I'm a little behind the curve sometimes. But whether I'm the customer or recruiters are, I don't see how that's a sustainable business long-term.