Washington [US], January 23: LinkedIn has been sued by millions of users, accusing the platform of disclosing private messages to third parties to train artificial intelligence (AI) models without permission.
Reuters reported on January 22 that according to a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of millions of LinkedIn Premium customers , the plaintiffs allege that user data was illegally harvested before the platform quietly installed a feature that allowed users to actively turn on or off the sharing of personal data in August 2024.
Customers said LinkedIn then quietly updated its privacy policy on September 18, 2024, to say that the data may be used to train AI models . In its "frequently asked questions" section, LinkedIn also updated the text to say that opting out "does not impact any (AI) training that has already taken place."
The plaintiffs allege that LinkedIn wanted to "cover up" its customers' privacy and go against its commitment to only use personal data to support and improve its platform. According to Reuters, the personal information of millions of LinkedIn Premium users was disclosed to third parties to train AI before September 18, 2024.
The lawsuit was filed in a court in San Jose, California ( USA), accusing LinkedIn of breaching the contract, unfair competition law in the state and demanding compensation of $1,000 for each user.
LinkedIn denied the allegations, saying the plaintiff made false and unsubstantiated claims.
The lawsuit was filed hours after US President Donald Trump announced a $500 billion AI infrastructure investment project led by a joint venture between Softbank, Oracle and OpenAI . However, billionaire Elon Musk is skeptical that the main investors really have that much money.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
