LinkedIn users rebel after personal data siphon crimped LinkedIn has reversed a recent decision to make it harder for members to download information about those who've decided to connect with them on the business-centric social network. The company's original decision removed a facility that allowed users to more-or-less-instantly download a .CSV file of all their connections. The …
I automatically refuse any linkedin request from anyone I don't personally know, and instantly bin messages from anyone with "500+" connections, since they're clearly only going for the numbers. There's a practical limit to how many acquaintances anyone can manage, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number
I flag them as spam. The more people do that, the harder it'll be for them to deliver email spam. You could also nuke your account, if you have one (why??)
I wonder if the recent report saying "spam is declining" included linkedin as such. I'm guessing not, else there'd be nothing to say.
When I receive suspicious invites on Linkedin, I do the following:
Check their connections
See if I actually know the requestor (if not, they are immediately treated with suspicion),
Then, if I have time, I will perform a google image search on the profile's photo. The results can be very enlightening. If I discover it is a harvested photo, I inform Linkedin, pronto. Impersonating people on Linkedin has become the new 419 scam engine.
LinkedIn is already a recruitment platform. It started off as a "social" network but as soon as they built up enough connections they started selling premium services to firms who want to harvest that info.
If you value your sanity, do not accept invites from recruitment agents. They do a search on "java" or some other common keyword and spam all their contacts with the job spec regardless of relevance. And of course all other agents with the same spec will spam it too. They can't help themselves. At least by not being linked they have to use up one of their precious in-mails if they want to communicate which cuts the noise down considerably.
And as a special thanks and indication of what we interpret the word "professional" to mean, please accept this free gift.
I'm confused, LinkedIn say - "... the data our members enter into LinkedIn is theirs and they should be able to export it."
But from reading the article the data being exported is about connections with - "members to download information about those who've decided to connect with them on the business-centric social network"
So LinkedIn's statement makes no sense as the data I enter is mine, but this is about downloading the data that other people have entered, which is by definition ... not mine. So why should I be able to export it at all!
Makes me kinda glad I only have the profile on there i set up years ago with very limited information... and a password long lost to the river of time (as in I forgot it). We know that Google and Facebook harvest our data, I didn't realize linked in let others harvest it as well.
Wrong. There are many people who will continually misuse the online space, and there are enough of them that you should never take any message at face value.
Thank God that all this is just for Internet activity. If I had to police my real life relations like I do my Internet communication I think I'd either go mad, ballistic or become a paranoid superspy.
Possibly all three.
“since that change, we’ve heard you loud and clear -- that is too long to have to wait for a download of connection information.”
I guess those whole complained are of the instant gratification crowd, or spammers, miscreats, etc. who want the information NOW!!!!! I shudder at the number of temper tantrums thrown.
LinkedIn have been mucking around with what is perhaps the last useful part of LinkedIn for me namely the groups. First it was duplicate e-mail digests with identical senders messing up my e-mail inbox, and now it's the new "What's new in your groups" digest which is a single e-mail with highlights of a tiny proportion of the discussions, which is next to useless.
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