LinkedIn Is Scraping User Data To Train Its AI Model And Some Can't Opt Out
There's an old saying with social media: the users are the product. That used to mean that if you posted on a service like Reddit, then your data would be sold to advertisers, either individually or in aggregate. That has only become more true with the advent of AI, as companies race to acquire the data necessary to train models. Microsoft's career-oriented LinkedIn has joined its more consumer-focused rivals, but for existing users it seems that the only way to win this game is not to play.
The trouble is that according to multiple reports, LinkedIn had actually started training its generative AI models on existing user data prior to introducing a form to opt out option in the service's Settings page, which is defaulted to opting users in. Perhaps even more troubling is that LinkedIn started training those models before introducing the setting at all and apparently without updating the terns of service. That means that, at least at first, users had no visibility into what LinkedIn was doing with their data, which is a surefire way to break users' trust.
To reach the toggle to opt out of allowing LinkedIn to use your data for its AI, log into LinkedIn, go to Settings > Data Privacy > Data for Generative AI Improvement. It's defaulted to "on", which means that unless users know about the setting, LinkedIn is probably training its AI on their data right now. We imagine that this behavior is particularly galling to users who pay for LinkedIn Premium, a $40 monthly subscription that gives additional insights to job seekers and recruiters alike.
Fortunately, as of the time of publishing, LinkedIn has updated its terms of service. The page now has a reference to generative AI in section 2: How We Use Your Data on the LinkedIn TOS page.
We may use your personal data to improve, develop, and provide products and Services, develop and train artificial intelligence (AI) models, develop, provide, and personalize our Services, and gain insights with the help of AI, automated systems, and inferences, so that our Services can be more relevant and useful to you and others.
Other than the slapdash way that LinkedIn went about updating its terms and notifying users that their data was now going to live forever inside the AI model, it's not that different from other competing platforms. X has been scraping the data posted by its users to power Grok, its own generative AI. LinkedIn and X users who are unhappy with this decision have little recourse beyond opting out. This is the Wild West for AI, and hopefully someone figures out a better way to train models soon.
