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UPDATE 9/20: LinkedIn has now stopped scraping UK user data, but is still scraping US user data by default. The UK's International Commissioner's Office revealed that LinkedIn pulled the plug on sourcing AI training data from the country's LinkedIn users after the regulator raised legal concerns.
"We are pleased that LinkedIn has reflected on the concerns we raised about its approach to training generative AI models with information relating to its UK users. We welcome LinkedIn’s confirmation that it has suspended such model training pending further engagement with the ICO," said Stephen Almond, ICO executive director of regulatory risk.
"In order to get the most out of generative AI and the opportunities it brings, it is crucial that the public can trust that their privacy rights will be respected from the outset," Almond continued. "We will continue to monitor major developers of generative AI, including Microsoft and LinkedIn, to review the safeguards they have put in place and ensure the information rights of UK users are protected."
Original Story 9/18:
About a week ago, LinkedIn quietly published a post that reveals it's now using your data to train its AI models. But many LinkedIn users may not be aware that their data is being swiped for AI training in the first place.
LinkedIn and "its affiliates" are using your profile page's data, posts, and other LinkedIn content to train AI models, including the ones LinkedIn uses to power its various AI features. LinkedIn does not specify in its post who exactly its "affiliates" are, but LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft, which has close financial ties to OpenAI.
Reached for comment, a LinkedIn spokesperson tells PCMag via email that "affiliates" refer to any Microsoft-owned company (Microsoft has acquired more than 270 companies since 1986, including five AI companies). The spokesperson adds, however, that LinkedIn is not sending collected user data to OpenAI. LinkedIn does use OpenAI models for its platform, however, via Microsoft's Azure AI service.
At time of writing, LinkedIn's Pages Terms, User Agreement, Privacy Policy, and Copyright Policy do not contain the words "AI" or "artificial intelligence" in any capacity. But LinkedIn's terms state: "You and LinkedIn agree that we may access, store, process and use any information and personal data that you provide."
LinkedIn's own policies prohibit any user-instigated "software, devices, scripts, robots" or crawlers from trawling its site. It bars its own users from selling or otherwise monetizing any data published on the work-focused social media platform.
But LinkedIn announced Wednesday that it's rolling out changes to these policies, specifically, its User Agreement and Privacy Policy, to include a disclosure on its use of your data for AI. LinkedIn SVP and General Counsel Blake Lawit writes: "We have added language to clarify how we use the information you share with us to develop the products and services of LinkedIn and its affiliates, including by training AI models used for content generation."
Notably, EU users (or those with VPNs that make it look like they're based in the EU) get more protections from AI training on LinkedIn than those elsewhere. Lawit says EU users, unlike the rest of LinkedIn, are automatically opted out. So LinkedIn won't be scraping and training AI on EU or Switzerland-based user data "until further notice."
UK- and US-based LinkedIn users noticed the site's AI training toggle popped up this week, with some arguing that Microsoft should pay LinkedIn users for scraping their data.
"Turn this off!" exclaimed VectorField founder and CEO Ido Banai in a post warning LinkedIn users about the toggle. "In the age of AI every time you add data into a platform and it's used for [machine learning] training you should get paid, it's a no-brainer!"
If you don't want Microsoft, LinkedIn, or other Microsoft-owned companies using your LinkedIn data and posts going forward, you can disable the setting by navigating to Settings > Data Privacy > Data for Generative AI Improvement.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to include comment from LinkedIn.