[temp99990]

It leaves a bad taste in my mouth that Reid Hoffman, Jeff Weiner, DJ Patil et al get to live their day to day without the reputation hit or scrutiny of FB because LinkedIn is not as “sexy” a media target despite being notorious for using the shadiest dark patterns in the industry and almost certainly historically more cavalier with user data than either FB or Goog with the lawsuits to back it up.

Edit: I added DJ Patil because he’s built a post-LinkedIn image as a champion of data for good but as the chief data person at LinkedIn almost certainly was the mastermind behind all the shady things LinkedIn ever did with user data.

[sbilstein]

The shadiest thing LinkedIn has ever done with user data is buttress their recommendation algorithms. I used to work there and trust me the data we have on customers is neither nefarious nor used for shady things other than growth. The dark patterns deserve their criticism but we have a very minimal picture of someone’s life other than a resume and business connections.

[cookingrobot]

LinkedIn once asked if I wanted to see what contacts I knew in the network. I clicked ok to connect to my email, and it immediately sent an email to everyone in my email history. It pretended to be written by me, saying I wanted to reconnect. It sent it to everyone - every old landlord, ever ex, every business contact, everyone. It was literally identity theft. That's a dark pattern.

[onemoresoop]

Dark pattern right there

[alanlovestea]

Have you talked to people worked for LinkedIn marketing or sales solution?

[somethoughts]

I think the smart thing is they didn't wander too much into politics. At least most of my LinkedIn feed is mostly still about work related topics.

[CPLX]

The effects of Facebook on our society have been extreme, often negative, and for the most part unforeseen until more recently. People consider it to have precipitated a crisis.

Is there any plausible argument that LinkedIn has contributed to the decline of society? Because it’s at least arguable that Facebook has.

[temp99990]

Just because your impact on the world is not as huge or consequential as Facebook doesn’t give you free range to exploit user data as you please and protect you from legitimate criticism for doing so. That is classic “whataboutism”

[sjg007]

I am curious, what shady dark patterns, and what cavalier things have they done with the data? I know there was a data breach but anything else?

[temp99990]

You can google for it...both the lawsuits around misuse of user data and their notorious use of dark patterns

[sjg007]

You made the claim, so you should back it up. I can google lots of things related to LinkedIn, but whatever I may find may not be exactly what you are referencing.

[skinnymuch]

Looking up LinkedIn dark patterns will show you tons of stuff. Just alone on HN you’ll find tons of stuff. It Is common enough on HN itself so I don’t think the OP needs to back it up.