Home LinkedIn hit with lawsuit over AI model training allegations

LinkedIn hit with lawsuit over AI model training allegations

LinkedIn has been hit with a lawsuit over claims it is enabling third parties to access private InMail messages for AI model training.

This relates to Premium customers in the United States after the Microsoft subsidiary opted out users in Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Hong Kong, and mainland China. 

Unlike these jurisdictions where exemptions were granted to prevent user data from being used “to train content-generating AI models,” no such provision has been in place in the States.  

Due to the absence of applicable federal law, American users are instead offered a default setting, labeled as “Data for Generative AI Improvement.” 

LinkedIn detailed how “This setting controls the training of generative AI models used to create content. When this setting is on LinkedIn and its affiliates may use your personal data and content you create on LinkedIn for that purpose.”

In related news, a study revealed late last year that over half of long-form posts on LinkedIn are AI-generated.

Focus on Premium customers and the specific terms set out

The lawsuit has been brought on behalf of Alessandro De La Torre, and presented in a California federal court. 

The legal action asserts that InMail message content has been provided to neural networks, based on communications from LinkedIn last year, which set out the company’s intentions and policy changes regarding user material and personal data to train AI models.

The lawsuit alleges that “LinkedIn breached its contractual promises by disclosing its Premium customers’ private messages to third parties to train generative artificial intelligence (‘AI’) models.” 

“Given its role as a professional social media network, these communications include incredibly sensitive and potentially life-altering information about employment, intellectual property, compensation, and other personal matters,” it continued.

The focus is on accounts belonging to Premium customers as they are required to sign up to specific terms, the LinkedIn Subscription Agreement (LSA), which differ from what is communicated to non-paying users of the platform.

Interestingly, the complaint appears to provide no proof that InMail contents have been shared, with the premise based on the assumption that the content is passed through the AI training process and hidden through inconsistent and unannounced policy changes.

Image credit: Via Midjourney

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Graeme Hanna
Tech Journalist

Graeme Hanna is a full-time, freelance writer with significant experience in online news as well as content writing. Since January 2021, he has contributed as a football and news writer for several mainstream UK titles including The Glasgow Times, Rangers Review, Manchester Evening News, MyLondon, Give Me Sport, and the Belfast News Letter. Graeme has worked across several briefs including news and feature writing in addition to other significant work experience in professional services. Now a contributing news writer at ReadWrite.com, he is involved with pitching relevant content for publication as well as writing engaging tech news stories.

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