LinkedIn User Data for AI Training Under Question 

Microsoft’s professional social media platform is criticized for using LinkedIn user data to train its own AI models and others without prior consent. 

Despite a recent announcement, most LinkedIn users may be unaware that their data has been incorporated into AI training datasets, which are also being shared with unnamed companies for similar purposes. 

LinkedIn is not the first social networking platform to take such a step, as other big tech companies, such as Meta and X have already taken such steps. 

Microsoft LinkedIn AI Training 

The Microsoft-owned company is now training its LinkedIn AI models on everything from data to profile pages, posts, and other content. The LinkedIn user data feature set on the platform leverages AI for improvements, too. 

While LinkedIn stated it does not directly share user data with OpenAI, the company relies on access to OpenAI’s models through Microsoft’s Azure AI service. 

What stands out in this matter is that “AI” or “artificial intelligence” has not appeared in any of the official terms of LinkedIn, including Pages Terms, User Agreement, and Privacy Policy in regard to AI model training. Instead, the policies of the company broadly state their rights to “access, store, process, and use any information and personal data” provided by the user. 

While not exactly worded that way, LinkedIn does ban LinkedIn user data usage to scrape data from the platform, all while it uses user-generated content in training its AI.  

In response to these critics, on Wednesday, LinkedIn said it has revised its policies, namely, the User Agreement and Privacy Policy, with updates reflecting how LinkedIn user data is used for LinkedIn AI training purposes.  

Blake Lawit, the senior vice president and general counsel at LinkedIn, said: “We have added language to clarify how we use the information you share with us to develop the products and services of LinkedIn and its affiliates, including by training AI models used for content generation.” 

EU Exclusion 

Interestingly, LinkedIn users in the European Union (EU) and Switzerland are excluded from AI training process due to the region’s stringent privacy laws.  

LinkedIn has stated it will not use data from users based in these regions, or those using a VPN to appear there, to train AI “until further notice,” offering them greater protection compared to users in other parts of the world, such as the US and UK. 

A positive aspect of the situation is that LinkedIn allows users to disable the use of their data for AI training through their account settings. However, experts argue this option is insufficient, citing inconsistencies and calling for greater transparency in how personal data is processed on the platform. 

“The opt-out model proves once again to be wholly inadequate to protect our rights: the public cannot be expected to monitor and chase every single online company that decides to use our data to train AI. Opt-in consent isn’t only legally mandated, but a common-sense requirement,” Mariano delli Santi, legal and policy officer at UK-based privacy advocacy nonprofit the Open Rights Group, told Forbes.  

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