[dror]

Here's how they do it. Various times Linkedin provides me with a form to "import" my contacts from my gmail account.

This dialog looks very similar to the login form to the site. If you use the same password for both sites (I don't), you might be thinking that you're logging in, when in fact you're bringing in everyone in your address book. Not sure, if they then automatically spam everyone on your list or not.

Linkedin clearly has crossed over to the dark side since they went public. They keep reducing their free services and pushing harder and harder to try to get you to sign up for "premium" accounts. It's time for an alternative.

[fourstar]

Alternative because the company is trying to make money? Sounds good until the (so-called) other company does the same exact thing.

[yorak]

Also, I recently found out that Android app from Linkedin extracts your gmail contacts. From what I could gather, you cannot opt-out. I was quite annoyed by this. I also see this a more probable explanation to contact harvesting than hacking to email accounts.

[tedunangst]

Do you know this because installing the app requested permission? The android security model is all or nothing, up front. If anyone ever would want the app to access their contacts, the app is required to demand that permission from every user at installation.