Corporate social network LinkedIn has started using users' personal data and content to train generative artificial intelligence (AI) models on the platform. However, the company did not inform the public that it would start doing this and even activated this option by default in the settings of the entire community.
The complaint came from the website 404 Mediawhich found reports from users on the social network about the case. In addition to to have done all this on the slyo LinkedIn didn't even update their own terms of service to talk about the matter before being contacted by the international press.
“Can LinkedIn and its affiliated companies use your personal data and content you create on LinkedIn to train the generative AI models that create content?”, says the option for users, which already appeared as “Enabled” even for those who never accessed the settings panel.
TecMundo A platform-based generative AI can be used as a text assistant and to compose messages for other people. By feeding on content and data published on the service, it gains a corporate language, including jargon from various media and even writing styles that may vary according to each person's professional area.
What about data protection laws?
In the European Union, a country with specific and strict digital privacy laws, data collection is not valid. Brazil has the General Data Protection Law (LGPD) with similar effects, but the country does not appear to have been left out of the measure.
The measure is similar to what Meta did with users in Brazil: it was only possible to exclude one's own profile from data collection to feed an AI from a form that was difficult to access and without official disclosure by the company.
In the case of the owner of WhatsApp and Instagram, Brazilian authorities managed to freeze this process and forced Meta to change its own rules to respect users' privacy.
Already support page explaining the case, LinkedIn argues that the collection “applies to the training and fine-tuning of generative AI models that are used to generate content” by the service and its affiliates.
How to opt out of LinkedIn using data to train AIs
To access the exact menu on data collection to train LinkedIn's generative AI, just click this link. On the page, uncheck the “Enabled” option.
TecMundoIf you want to make the path manually or in the mobile app, tap on your profile picture and go to “Privacy settings“. Then, access the menu “Data Privacy” and then tap “Data for improving generative AI“.
There, just tap the button until it turns to “Disabled” to prevent LinkedIn from using your publications and information to feed the generative platform.