LinkedIn Sells Private Customer Data

Just like Google, LinkedIn is also facing criticism in regards to failure of keeping private data safe. But while Google lost sensitive information due to burglary or court order, LinkedIn is accused of making a profit from user data.

The company was founded five years ago and provided business networking services. All you had to do was join in (which was free of charge) and then connect with friends that had done the same thing. The interesting part was that someone had to be introduced to you in order to become one more addition to your friends list. It was a great thing in terms of privacy.

But then things took a turn for the worse; for us, the privacy oriented user, not for the money hungry company. As it turns out, the average user of LinkedIn makes more than $100,000 per year, is about 40 years of age and has a good position in the company he works for.

LinkedIn decided to advertise merchandise to its users, but in a selective manner. For example, if Mercedes decided to advertise its new model, it would go to LinkedIn and they would choose from the member database the ones that fitted the marketing campaign. Then, LinkedIn decided to make a little more money by offering Premium Business and Premium Business Plus. With a regular membership you couldn't just send someone an e-mail, you had to be introduced first; with the new types of membership, this was no longer an issue. HR companies saw a great opportunity in this and for good reason. All they had to do was pay and they had access to all sorts of potential job candidates.

LinkedIn's new Enterprise Corporate Solution allows access to all LinkedIn members, and there are bout 23 million of them in all. With a simple search, one can find loads of profiles which can then be sent to recruiters and HR companies.