If you have a profile on LinkedIn, you’re going to want to read this.
The professional networking site, which boasts 930 million users, quietly added a new default setting that allows it to use users’ data to train its artificial intelligence software.
According to the Washington Post, LinkedIn considers most of your data as “fair game,” including posts, articles, and videos.
However, it’s not all bad news. LinkedIn does, at least, give users the option to opt-out.
How to opt-out of LinkedIn AI training
To opt-out, whether you’re on a desktop or on the app, the first step is to log into your LinkedIn account. The second is to click on your headshot, which will then give you the option go to your settings page.
Then, under the settings page, click on “Data privacy.” Users will then be able to toggle the “Data for generative AI improvement” option on or off.
But there’s one problem. LinkedIn told the Washington Post, that toggling this setting off won’t reverse any previous AI training that has been done using your data.
In conversation with the outlet, LinkedIn spokesperson Greg Snapper defended the platform’s use of user data by arguing that this AI training will “help people all over the world create economic opportunity.”
“If we get this right,” he added, “we can help a lot of people at scale.”
Meanwhile, F. Mario Trujillo, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told the Washington Post that “hard-to-find opt-out tools are almost never an effective way to allow users to exercise their privacy rights.”
“If companies really want to give users a choice,” Trujillo said, “they should present users with a clear ‘yes’ or ‘no’ consent choice.”
