7 ms·
LinkedIn screwed me over real good a few weeks back. They sent me an email saying "There are 108 people you might want to connect with", so I click on view all
by MagicWishMonkey 12y ago
LinkedIn screwed me over real good a few weeks back.
They sent me an email saying "There are 108 people you might want to connect with", so I click on view all and it shows a giant list of people with checkmarks by their names. Nice. I uncheck all of them, and scroll through checking a few folks who I want to network with (5 people in total). Click next, it takes me to a screen showing the 5 people and the banner clearly says "Send connection requests to these 5 people?". I click next.
The next screen says "Congratulations, we've sent connection requests to 300 people.". What the flying fuck? Ok, well that's a bummer but oh well, probably just a bug in their system. Then my inbox starts getting spammed with "I'm out of the office right now blah blah blah" from people who I don't even know who they are.
The assholes sent 300 people linkedin connection requests through my own personal gmail account. With zero warning whatsoever. That really pisses me off.
I like LinkedIn, it's a great networking tool, but they really need to stop doing this shit. Something similar happened a few years ago, but they only spammed people in my address book who were already members and the emails were sent by LinkedIn, not through my gmail account.
I've revoked LinkedIn's access to my gmail account. I regret ever enabling it in the first place. I recommend you do the same.
For those who don't know how: https://www.google.com/settings/security https://www.google.com/settings/security (click the view all button next to Apps and Websites).
- basseq 12y agoI don't think I ever granted them access, but somehow they got a list of random email contacts. So every once in a while I'll get an email that says, "Connect with Joe?" Looks like a normal inbound connection request, but it's actually a trap to get YOU to initiate a request. Awkward for contacts you might accept a request from, but not reach out to.
- karamazov 12y agoI suspect the other party gave LinkedIn their address book, and they're trying to maximize the odds of a connection.
- basseq 12y agoHmm, that's a great point. I've always tried to be careful. I use LinkedIn frankly more than any other social network because it allows me to keep up with my friends' professional lives, not vacation photos or snarky tweets. I haven't found a job through LinkedIn, though have made some connections. I do not trust LinkedIn to do the right thing with my data, and the fact that they're "tricking" users into actions they wouldn't otherwise take just smells like a rat.
- oaktowner 12y agoYes, I agree. I never give a site like LinkedIn access to any of my accounts, but I have noticed that it will suggest a connection with someone whom I've ever had one email interaction. At first, I was bewildered, then I realized it must be because theotherparty granted access to their contacts.
- papad 12y agoThis makes total sense. I have also been very careful to not let LinkedIn get access to my email or contacts - precisely cause I don't trust what they will do with that data on my behalf. But they still manage to suggest all these random contacts that look like they're coming from my address book. A few times I have panicked and made sure I hadn't accidentally given them access. But it makes sense that the other side gave them access and they are trying to get a match. I do like LinkedIn as a professional network. It's helpful when going into meetings, I can check out the people's backgrounds and use that as added context / something to relate with. It's helpful when trying to figure out whether someone could be a good sales/biz dev opportunity based on their background and experience. If I trusted them more, I may consider integrating them more tightly with some of my sales funnel workflows - but for now, I will continue using them as a standalone tool.
- danielweber 12y agoLinkedIn had a dark pattern, which they've made slightly less dark recently, of asking you to "log in" by typing in your email address and then your email address password. Of course, you are already logged in to LinkedIn at that point. The current version shows up when you click "Add Connections" but it used to be much more in-your-face.
- cstejerean 12y agoAre you using an Android phone? I noticed this too with LinkedIn and it happened immediately after installing LinkedIn on Android. Never happened in previous years while using iOS.
- mlangdon 12y agoThe really messed up part is that the app has basically every permission turned on AND ships with some on-contract phones. So although I had never once opened the app, it was running in the background on an old POS HTC I had. Pretty sure that's where they got every contact ever.
- jrochkind1 12y agoMany, many, people have been burned by this same thing. I think we need more advertisement of this terrible practice -- and or try to get google to aggressively block their access to do this sort of thing from your gmail, as what it is -- essentially a phishing/malware attack.
- lelf 12y ago> revoked LinkedIn's access to my gmail account I honestly don't know what people are thinking while enabling that. No, Seriously?
- hashmymustache 12y agoI don't understand how Gmail allows it. I assume they've gotten enough complaints about it being abused to prohibit or strictly limit access with at least warnings before actions can be taken.
- nostromo 12y agoBecause the "old way" was worse. http://blog.codinghorror.com/please-give-us-your-email-password/ http://blog.codinghorror.com/please-give-us-your-email-passw... I believe Facebook was the first site to ask users for their email passwords -- and to great effect, at least on their growth metrics.
- Scoundreller 12y agoI tried searching Google for "has facebook ever asked for email account logins and passwords?" and couldn't find any proof. Does anyone have a source for this?
- reubenmorais 12y agoThis is what it looked like: http://i.imgur.com/TFQeIBr.png http://i.imgur.com/TFQeIBr.png Whoa, I just looked at the friend finder page and it still does that for some email providers: http://i.imgur.com/bC9xEEM.png http://i.imgur.com/bC9xEEM.png
- zem 12y agoironic that facebook goes after sites that ask for your facebook password.
- JoergR 12y agoVictim blaming much?
- tbrownaw 12y agoWhy the holy flying fuck would anyone give someone they met on the Internet the ability to impersonate them? That's like online safety 101, right after not giving out your home address and vacation schedule. Especially when that someone already has a bad reputation like linkedin has.
- MagicWishMonkey 12y agoI had no idea that I granted them permission to send email through my account, I thought I had restricted them to the address book. I made a mistake.
- jessaustin 12y agoJust the address book would have been enough to allow most of the shenanigans described in this thread? Now LI know a bunch of other people that might recognize your name, and that's really all they need.
- MagicWishMonkey 12y agoThe part that really pissed me off was how they sent emails through my gmail account. They essentially hijacked my account to spam people.
- kazinator 12y agoYou don't think that giving an address book full of good addresses to known spammers is a bad idea? Oh, it's okay as long as they send messages to those contacts using their identity, so it's not traced back to you ...
- basseq 12y agoThis is my problem with social-network-based SSO solutions. Why would I sign into your service with Twitter when you request the right to post on my behalf? (I've been burned by that. Never again.)
- afandian 12y ago
- monochromatic 12y ago> The assholes sent 300 people linkedin connection requests through my own personal gmail account. With zero warning whatsoever. The fact that they requested access to your email account should have been warning enough.
- rnovak 12y agoI can't understand why anyone would give any entity access to their email, it's really baffling. I personally see LinkedIn as horrible, and deleted my account long ago. They don't let you restrict who can view your profile, and they allow people to remain anonymous. For anyone who cares about Privacy, this should be a huge no-no.
- CamperBob2 12y agoAgreed, it's incredible, and utterly dumbfounding, that people would simply turn over access to their email like that. The only explanation I can imagine is that other (younger?) people just don't take email as seriously.
- _almosnow 12y agoYeah right, so OP was asking for it, right?
- CamperBob2 12y agoI wouldn't say that (and didn't.)
- fsloth 12y agoI agree, the email access thing is crazy. Both from a feature side and that someone would agree on it. However, I would claim the fully visible profile is actually a feature. LinkdedIn is not Facebook. LinkedIn is a professional index, like the yellow pages, with the difference that the minimum inclusion is free.
- ploxiln 12y agoI never let them have my email credentials (address, ok, linked account or credentials, no). But, the thing they do that really bothers me, is to ask people endorse me for things, in a way that suggests I asked to be endorsed for those things. But I didn't. It just found words related to those in my profile. And people who like me or want to be helpful click OK to endorse me for shit that I have nothing to do with. Like ASP.net. I just don't like that it makes people think I asked to be endorsed. For stuff I don't know and don't do.
- pasbesoin 12y agoGIGO. Which makes me think that the actual functionality/utility in LinkedIn (of which I am not a member) lies elsewhere. Years ago, recruiting advice was insisting that a LinkedIn profile had become necessary. But even back then, the configuration / data sharing they insisted upon, and worse, the reporting on some of their bad (from my perspective, and also others') behaviour was just too much for me, and I stayed away. I imagine much of what one gets through LinkedIn is akin to much of what one gets in the rest of the corporate world. A lot of BS, and you left at your own discretion to discern the truth -- such as it is and is reflected in that environment -- amidst all this. P.S. I'll add that LinkedIn seems to have become a poster child -- albeit a lame-assed corporate one -- for "dark patterns".
- b1twise 12y agoPlaxo!
- kazinator 12y agoNot all entries in your address book are "people" either. Are any of them mailing lists? (Like open source projects or whatnot?) They will get this spam also.
- austinz 12y agoI heartily recommend everyone with a Google account follow that link and double-check your security and allowed app settings. (Also take some time to go through your app-specific passwords and revoke any that aren't relevant anymore.) In addition to being good practice in and of itself, Google is currently doing a promotion where they'll increase your Google Drive space by 2 GB if you go through their security checklist (see link below): http://googledrive.blogspot.com/2015/02/safer-internet-day-2015.html http://googledrive.blogspot.com/2015/02/safer-internet-day-2...
- mikro2nd 12y agoBut if you refuse to give them your phone no. - for much the same reasons you should be hesitant about giving LinkedIn your email address - then it is impossible to complete the check. No 2GB for me, then!
- ddxv 12y agoThank you. I posted that on LinkedIn to spread the word.
- byset 12y agoI feel victim to this a while back and documented it here: http://marknugent.tumblr.com/post/98203319356/linkedins-evil-ux http://marknugent.tumblr.com/post/98203319356/linkedins-evil...