Microsoft Is Harvesting Your LinkedIn Data To Train AI Unless You Flip This Toggle

Last month, we reported that some users were unable to opt out of LinkedIn's scraping of user data to train AI. Since then, LinkedIn has updated its terms of service to state that LinkedIn user data will be used not only for targeted advertisements, but also generative AI. LinkedIn informed customers outside of the US this change to its terms of service, declaring that their data will now also be processed for training generative AI models.

Neowin then reached out to LinkedIn, and LinkedIn responded to say that "Many U.S. states consider ads elected based on an individual's activities [...] to be 'targeted advertising' and provide you a right to opt out of having your data used for this purpose". Oddly, the response doesn't seem to directly address the terms of service change extending to generative AI or the ability for the non-US recipients of the update email to opt out, but toggles to disable AI training and targeted advertisements with LinkedIn user data do exist.

For users who are just hearing about this that want to disable it right away, a quick foray into your LinkedIn settings, then to the "Data privacy" submenu will reveal the option to opt out of providing Data for Generative AI improvement, which seems to be automatically enabled for most users. "Advertising data" is a separate category with a slider for "Data sharing with our affiliates and select partners", including Microsoft, and LinkedIn's comments point to it being enabled by default for users within the United States.

LinkedIn's official statement on the matter says the following: "LinkedIn may use information that we receive from others about your engagement with their sites and services, in order to improve our tools for targeting ads. While we do not use your off-LinkedIn engagement data to predict your interests at an individual level, we do use it to improve our tools for targeting ads overall. Many U.S. states consider ads selected based on an individual’s activities outside of a company’s own websites or applications to be “targeted advertising” and provide you a right to opt out of having your data used for this purpose."

The phrasing of this response is a concerning, since it implies that some users outside of the United States may not be able to opt out, but hopefully it just means that LinkedIn includes this feature because some states require it and they aren't withholding it from territories that do not. Considering the unmitigated data scraping of the AI industry at large, though, it's good that Microsoft is at least giving some users the option.