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On a brighter note, I downloaded an archive of my LinkedIn data. The data set was less than half a megabyte and contained exactly what I had expected: spreadshe
by qntty 9y ago
On a brighter note, I downloaded an archive of my LinkedIn data. The data set was less than half a megabyte and contained exactly what I had expected: spreadsheets of my LinkedIn contacts and information I had added to my profile.
Somehow I'm unwilling to believe that Linkedin is really an exception here. More likely they don't include all the data they have on you.
I downloaded my facebook data, and the only thing that I was surprised at is that they actually give you so much of the data they have on you. I expected them to redact most of it. Is it really reasonable to think that they don't have even more data than they let you download? They're not required by law to give it all to you, are they?
- jordache 9y agoexactly... do not take at face value what these services deliver to you. I chuckled at the guy who assumed he deleted all of his FB data via a data scrapping client..
- antisthenes 9y agoYep, if there's any takeaway from here is that companies will gladly take multiple avenues and channels to lie to you. 1. Not providing tools to see or download your data 2. Simply not providing options to turn off data collection or pretending that the options available are complete. 3. Providing tools to see and download a portion of your data, pretending that it is complete 4. Pretending to delete your data on account deletion but retaining the data, or at least a portion of the data 5. Collecting more data than they say they do 6. Collecting data on people who do not directly interact with the company services
- taurath 9y agoLinkedin is worse than Facebook in terms of privacy. So many dark patterns on their site - someday their reckoning will come just as facebooks. Easier target too since it could hurt people’s jobs and careers.
- bhnmmhmd 9y agoWhen Microsoft acquired LinkedIn I suspected they will go for the top talent with this. Think about it: Based on users' data and behavior, one can anticipate whether or not he/she is going to quit/leave his/her current job. Microsoft recruiters can then swoop in and offer him/her a job. Or for example, Microsoft can essentially map all the top IT talents network and use this to its advantage. The list goes on...
- taurath 9y agoI had forgot the MS acquired it! Honestly it’s probably less bad than it was. Maybe in a few years we’ll hear about all the scrubbing they had to do to keep MS safe.
- phy6 9y agoWe joke at the office about going to update our linkedin after terrible meetings. In fact the act of interacting with that site at all, either from updates or clicking emails, is probably a sign I'm looking for greener pastures.
- l9k 9y agoI'm not sure it would be really helpful. Not all jobs (on LinkedIn) are IT jobs, far from that. The real advantage would be to map everyone and every company to get intelligence on the users and potential users of their products (Office 365)
- fredliu 9y agoDefinitely the things Linkedin do are so much worse and creepier, just by looking at the people they recommend me to connect to, the level of offline tracking they must be doing are creepy beyond imagination.
- organsnyder 9y agoFacebook at times appears to be doing something similar. After spending a day in a conference room with a colleague that normally works from a different location, all of a sudden he was at the top of my "suggested friends" list.
- phy6 9y agoWe used the same temporal colocation analysis to find ships smuggling things at sea. ;)
- greggarious 9y agoWho is "we?" :)
- phy6 9y agoIt was one of many DARPA projects to see what can be done with the table scraps of open/unclassified data available. The ship beaconing data was in that category. As was uber sample data, backpage data, darkweb ecommerce, blockchain ledgers. We looked at ALL kinds of data, and tried fusing where we could. One target was human trafficking. https://www.google.com/search?q=memex+human+trafficking https://www.google.com/search?q=memex+human+trafficking
- bshimmin 9y agoI had a great one like this with LinkedIn recently - a client called me to discuss something and mentioned a third-party; I hadn't heard of them so asked if the client could send me some information; he sent me an email later that day with a link to the other company's web site, which I duly clicked and browsed around. The very next day, in my LinkedIn "People you may know" in the top row was a lead developer at that very same (tiny, otherwise totally unconnected to me) company.
- phy6 9y agoMy old boss loved to play big brother on us with LinkedIn. She'd get notified when we were updating our stuff, and I think she could see when we were messaging with recruiters/etc. I'm not entirely sure what the limits were with her upgraded account, but she wasn't good at hiding that she knew when her employees were looking for new jobs.
- raquo 9y agoI used to always update my LinkedIn a few weeks before performance evaluation meetings. Was hoping the HR would notice and recognize retention risk. They were still surprised when I eventually quit, ha.
- jacquesm 9y agoInteresting how someone like that most likely was the biggest cause of people looking for jobs in the first place. I know I would.
- greggarious 9y ago>Linkedin is worse than Facebook in terms of privacy. And that sucks since it's hard to have a professional life w/o one. I've known women who were stalked/harassed because despite otherwise being pretty locked down their harassers found their linkedin and used that to harangue them.
- paulie_a 9y agoIt's honestly not that difficult. I dropped my account, it served no value. Getting regular messages "to pick my brain" is a waste
- FilterSweep 9y agoFacebook's reckoning never came, judging by the laughable "grand inquisition" that happened this past week.
- paulie_a 9y agoI couldn't delete multiple connections at a time. So I deleted my LinkedIn account instead. LinkedIn really serves no purpose if you are not in HR.
- sixothree 9y ago> Is it really reasonable to think that they don't have even more data than they let you download? No. They have more data. They have lots more data. Browsing history for example via trackers. And no, we (Americans) do not have any meaningful laws. Nothing. Nor do we have any rights to privacy. We have no right to know what personal private information is being collected, bought, or sold.
- 908087 9y agoExactly. The number of "This is all of the data Facebook/Google/etc have on you" articles I've seen recently make me want to bang my head on the wall. They absolutely are not letting you download everything they have.
- sixothree 9y agoNot just articles, but forums posts as well. I suspect the worst. But hope these authors are just "uninformed".
- 908087 9y agoThere was also a rapid and noticeable shift in "public opinion" on Reddit in regards to Facebook/Zuckerberg from overwhelmingly negative to slightly positive just in time for Zuckerberg's hearings. I also suspect the worst here. I've also personally been receiving downvotes here on HN for posting undeniable facts about Facebook (and the data collection practices of other ad companies), but that could just be a result of the numerous FB employees on this site trying to pull the wool over their and our eyes on behalf of their employer.
- sixothree 9y agoI fear the worst here. We hear stories about the armies of people in other countries. We can feel the presence of mainland influences in these threads.
- paulie_a 9y ago
- hunt 9y agoAnecdotally, I had a very strange experience with LinkedIn. I went to stay with my friend in another country for a few days and upon returning home, LinkedIn recommended his father as a connection - despite me never electronically contacting him. The friend I stayed with doesn't have LinkedIn nor have I contacted him over email or similar. My guess is that it must have been location based or because I connected to their WiFi - very weird.
- phy6 9y agoYes, my guess is either public IP or GPS colocation from phone apps, possibly even using the wifi AP name if you both had phones connected. If civilian GPS is good to a few meters, it's easy to look up who lives in that radius.
- squarefoot 9y ago"They're not required by law to give it all to you, are they?" Not sure about the law (which also changes from country to country) but even if they'd be required to give all users their data, it is possible that they keep a relevant slice of the results obtained by matching that data. Releasing all that data public could reveal the inner workings of their algorithms, so I'd understand if they would rather release what people gave them while keeping most of what they inferred from that information, which of course is where the real knowledge is.
- whyever 9y ago> They're not required by law to give it all to you, are they? They are in Europe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Schrems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Schrems
- celticninja 9y agoIn the UK, and possibly throughout the EU, they legally have to provide everything they have on you under the Data Protection Act for no more than a £10 administration fee.