LinkedIn, the professional networking social utility which helps people find jobs and career related interests, is now involved in some serious controversies regarding privacy.
What Happened?
Three class action lawsuits have been prosecuted against LinkedIn for violating the consumer’s right to data privacy by collecting health data. These legal actions were filed in federal courts as well as in the California State courts, by the law firm Bursor & Fisher. All of them are focused on the tool called LinkedIn Insight Tag that is used by the platform. Imagine it as a spyglass that observes users’ activity within selected web-sites.
But here is the kicker – this tracking tool was not employed on conventional supermarkets or travel Web sites. It was featured on healthcare websites, including Spring Fertility, CityMD, and Headway. Therefore, when individuals came to these sites to schedule a medical appointment or to schedule a therapy session, Gender, medical condition, and sexual orientation were among the health information that LinkedIn, a social media platform supposedly collected.
Why Is This a Big Deal?
According to the lawsuit, LinkedIn had infringed the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA). In simple words these privacy laws are meant to end companies spying on people rather than information especially without consent.
LinkedIn is not some small business struggling to get its head around marketing, it is an international technology company with over one billion active users from all over the globe and it belongs to Microsoft. As for the businesses with data-led marketing tools, it turns out this time they went too far, collecting data that no one thought they would share.
How Does the Tracking Work?
Large numbers of people turn to these tools to analyze how users interact with a company’s website, which can directly feed tailored advertising. In theory it is beneficial especially where businesses can target the appropriate demographic for the ads, but when health data is incorporated things become quite hazy.
Meta, a technology company, encountered a similar issue more recently. 2022 saw several lawsuits charging Meta with harvesting patient details from the hospital’s website, without permission. Now, the professional social networking site LinkedIn is into the same mess. However, there are at least two cases in which Meta is listed as one of the co-defendants primarily because both were accused of collecting highly personal data through these tracking tools.
The Transparency Problem
Anticipating the exposure, LinkedIn requires users to accept its privacy and cookie policies; however, the lawsuit argues that these policies do not capture the following details: how much data the Insight Tag absorbs and the purpose to which that data is put.
Plaintiffs also claim that the means by which LinkedIn gathers medical data is unlawful. As other privacy strategies and policies experts have pointed out, to reduce privacy risks and guarantee users click “I agree”, isn’t enough. Businesses need to show customers the ways, whereby data gets used and gets consent — especially when concerning health data, from the customers.
LinkedIn’s Response
Linkedin, of course, is defending itself. An official for the company said, “We shall demonstrate to the world these advertising tools protect the members’ privacy and that these allegations are baseless.”
What’s Next for Companies?
Companies are being advised to be extra cautious because as privacy lawsuits appear to be on the increase they are also becoming more complicated. Stacy Boven, a privacy attorney, explained that due to state laws, business organizations that maintain websites for public use should conduct a legal analysis of their data practices, collect the smallest amount of data possible, and declare it.
