LinkedIn may be using your account information to train AI without your permission. You should think about how your information is being used and how you can control it.
LinkedIn has updated its privacy settings to allow the platform to use personal data to improve its AI-driven features. The company’s revised privacy policy confirms that user data is used to train AI models. However, many users were not informed in advance.
What LinkedIn says about data use
LinkedIn lets you stop your data from being used in AI training, but it’s not simple. Go to your account settings and turn off the “Data for Generative AI Improvement” toggle. This stops your data from being used to train AI models in the future. However, it doesn’t affect any data that has already been used.
LinkedIn has more machine learning tools, unrelated to generative AI, that are used for tasks like personalizing recommendations or moderating content. Opting out of this category requires you to complete a separate LinkedIn Data Processing Opt-out form. This form explains how LinkedIn uses your data.
According to LinkedIn, its use of personal data is intended to improve and develop its products and services. On a help page, the company explains that generative AI is being used for features like writing assistance and that opting out will prevent your data from being used for future AI training. However, it’s important to note that LinkedIn claims to use “privacy enhancing technologies” to remove personal data from its training sets. Additionally, the platform does not use the data of users living in the European Union, European Economic Area, or Switzerland for AI training due to regional data protection laws.
Users who live in other regions, however, are automatically included unless they proactively opt-out. This approach has sparked concern, especially in the wake of similar revelations from Meta, which recently admitted to having used non-private user data for AI training going back to 2007.
A growing trend among tech giants
The practice of using vast amounts of user data to train AI models is becoming increasingly common among tech companies. LinkedIn’s decision to opt users into this program without direct consent mirrors actions taken by other platforms, raising questions about transparency and data privacy. Although LinkedIn provides ways to opt-out, many users are left wondering how much control they really have over their personal information once it’s been used for AI training.
As AI becomes more common online, companies like LinkedIn are using user data in new ways. While LinkedIn offers opt-out options, it’s unclear how users will respond to these data practices.
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