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Related: why doesn't anybody take down LinkedIn? They run consistently obviously illegal spam/marketing practices. Why do they get a free pass? Is the "mafia

by seiji 11y ago

Related: why doesn't anybody take down LinkedIn? They run consistently obviously illegal spam/marketing practices. Why do they get a free pass? Is the "mafia" part of PayPal mafia too strong? Too many cross-bred investor attachments all the way down making some services "untouchable" no matter what they do? We need something like the EFF but for out of control tech companies needing to be denounced for the public good.

arenaninja 11y ago
LinkedIn has some niche competition. I've seen at least two oil-oriented ones based out of Houston, and a few others elsewhere
- fs111 11y ago
  xing.de is bigger than linkedin in the German speaking world and has been a profitable business for years. They are way less spammy.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
ohitsdom 11y ago
I'm missing the LinkedIn comparison. PayPal handles money. Their track record of horrible customer service has caused a lot of financial trouble for people and institutions. What are the complaints with LinkedIn? As far as I know, it's more of spammy contacting behavior. Which I get that's annoying, but not even in the same ballpark as PayPal.
- logicallee 11y ago
  The claim I heard is (from the perspective of the complaint), that they "use your gmail account [with your nominal permission] and get the names of your contacts, to whom they then 'impersonate' you." (scare quotes because I don't view it this way.) i.e. your contacts will get a message "from you" as though you were asking them to do something. Even though you have not actually taken that action. Personally this is not my perspective, and it doesn't bother me because when I receive these messages it's pretty obviously automated mail from linkedin, and it's pretty obvious that LinkedIn got it from the person's email contacts. It doesn't cause me to think the person actually necessarily took any action or sent that to me themselves. I also haven't been bothered by the volume of it. To me, it's the kind of thing that's a small price to pay for hacking a network of connections together, which is probably a benefit to everyone in it. we need more social networks, not fewer.
  - seiji 11y ago
    > they use your password to log in to your gmail account and that is a federal crime. Why do they go unpunished? There sure are a lot of products and services I'd like to create if I knew laws were just suggestions. Every massive-growth startup seems to have some underlying "we did these five illegal things to get started" backstory. Almost every garbage social media company either directly tries that (password-proxy to other services for scraping) or they use a scam to trick you into "consent" by offering so many forced options to click through you eventually accidentally hit a "yes don't not contact my un-friends with not my unconsent" button. (Or the super jerk version: "If you don't opt-out of this feature within two days of creating your account, we will take actions X, Y, Z on your behalf" in fine print.)
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
    - tim333 11y ago
      Apparently they ask for permission to log in which is not a crime. There is a class action suit going on saying they only ask for permission to do it once but then repeat it: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/243419/linkedin-moves-toward-settling-class-action-over-e.html http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/243419/linkedi...
      - logicallee 11y ago
        so I don't know why I was downvoted, I pretty much reported the exact claim. it's worth pointing out that linkedin hardly has a reputation here and other tech places as scammy spammers, people seem okay with it, again, probably due to the benefits. (compare the tech reaction to uber's practices regarding lyft, or when people disliked paypal's freezing of accounts.)
        ohitsdom 11y ago
        I didn't downvote, but I'd guess it's because you seemed to dismiss/minimize the LinkedIn sneaky emails because it was obvious they were automated.

by seiji 11y ago

arenaninja 11y ago

LinkedIn has some niche competition. I've seen at least two oil-oriented ones based out of Houston, and a few others elsewhere

fs111 11y ago
xing.de is bigger than linkedin in the German speaking world and has been a profitable business for years. They are way less spammy.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]

ohitsdom 11y ago

I'm missing the LinkedIn comparison. PayPal handles money. Their track record of horrible customer service has caused a lot of financial trouble for people and institutions. What are the complaints with LinkedIn? As far as I know, it's more of spammy contacting behavior. Which I get that's annoying, but not even in the same ballpark as PayPal.

logicallee 11y ago
The claim I heard is (from the perspective of the complaint), that they "use your gmail account [with your nominal permission] and get the names of your contacts, to whom they then 'impersonate' you." (scare quotes because I don't view it this way.) i.e. your contacts will get a message "from you" as though you were asking them to do something. Even though you have not actually taken that action. Personally this is not my perspective, and it doesn't bother me because when I receive these messages it's pretty obviously automated mail from linkedin, and it's pretty obvious that LinkedIn got it from the person's email contacts. It doesn't cause me to think the person actually necessarily took any action or sent that to me themselves. I also haven't been bothered by the volume of it. To me, it's the kind of thing that's a small price to pay for hacking a network of connections together, which is probably a benefit to everyone in it. we need more social networks, not fewer.
- seiji 11y ago
  > they use your password to log in to your gmail account and that is a federal crime. Why do they go unpunished? There sure are a lot of products and services I'd like to create if I knew laws were just suggestions. Every massive-growth startup seems to have some underlying "we did these five illegal things to get started" backstory. Almost every garbage social media company either directly tries that (password-proxy to other services for scraping) or they use a scam to trick you into "consent" by offering so many forced options to click through you eventually accidentally hit a "yes don't not contact my un-friends with not my unconsent" button. (Or the super jerk version: "If you don't opt-out of this feature within two days of creating your account, we will take actions X, Y, Z on your behalf" in fine print.)
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - tim333 11y ago
    Apparently they ask for permission to log in which is not a crime. There is a class action suit going on saying they only ask for permission to do it once but then repeat it: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/243419/linkedin-moves-toward-settling-class-action-over-e.html http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/243419/linkedi...
    - logicallee 11y ago
      so I don't know why I was downvoted, I pretty much reported the exact claim. it's worth pointing out that linkedin hardly has a reputation here and other tech places as scammy spammers, people seem okay with it, again, probably due to the benefits. (compare the tech reaction to uber's practices regarding lyft, or when people disliked paypal's freezing of accounts.)
      - ohitsdom 11y ago
        I didn't downvote, but I'd guess it's because you seemed to dismiss/minimize the LinkedIn sneaky emails because it was obvious they were automated.