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People have voiced their dissent for years, saying LinkedIn was selling user data in the truest sense, the company has turned this into reality now. The microblogging and networking site acquired by Microsoft has now updated its privacy policy to allow using users' data to train AI models.
The new policy will come into effect from Monday. This would be a huge change in the way user data would be dealt with on the website. Specifically, the network under Microsoft now added explicit details to the Privacy Policy relating to using personal data to create AI-based services and sharing information with affiliates.
Users are automatically enrolled to permit their posts and personal data to be used to train the AI. That information will help hone LinkedIn's generation capabilities, including writing suggestions and posting recommendations. Microsoft's AI also could draw from the information, LinkedIn says on its Q&A page.
LinkedIn has unveiled a toggle feature that enables users to opt out of being used for training AI models on their data.
One can change these features by going to Settings and Privacy > Data Privacy > Data for Generative AI Improvement > and deactivating the "Use my data for training content creation AI models" toggle feature. However, this also means that opting out won't influence any training that may have already been done.
LinkedIn would collect no such information from users in the European Union, European Economic Area, or Switzerland.
According to recent news, The United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom signed a new, ground-breaking treaty Council of Europe’s AI convention in Vilnius. This treaty, a first-in-its-kind “legally binding international agreement” on AI, named the Council of Europe Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence puts human rights and democracy at front and center and offers an international benchmark for AI regulation. Read more
This can be a major reason behind LinkedIn not allowing users' data to be collected in these countries.
The move is consistent with an overarching trend of the social media giants, Meta and Snap being attacked for using user data for training AI models. For example, Meta has faced criticism for scraping data without permission.
Raising concerns on privacy and the use of data, jurisdictions are moving in to address these issues. These concerns have also been recently raised by the Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Centre concerning Meta's data practices and actions as it demands the Indian government ensure that the data collected from users is protected.
