Last week I complained that LinkedIn’s new privacy policy lets them use your image and name for their ads and the opt-out links didn’t work. I sent LinkedIn email on Friday telling them their opt-out system didn’t work. I didn’t hear anything, so Tuesday I wrote a letter to their legal department, and sent it to their legal notification address yesterday.
Today, I received a straight-forward response from a paralegal at LinkedIn giving me a different opt-out link that works. I’ve updated my account, and I think you can use the same link for your LinkedIn account.
Of course, It really should not take so much effort to opt-out. Certainly it should require spending $5-something to send their attorneys a certified complaint.
From: [paralegal]
Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2011 2:13 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Opting out of Social Ads on LinkedIn (re: your letter of 7/5/11)Dear Mr. Workman,
LinkedIn received your letter regarding problems opting out of having your name, picture and other personal information used in our advertising.
The link to the opt-out that you cited in your letter is a little different than the URL I’m seeing when I click through the policy from the link at the bottom of our main page: https://www.linkedin.com/settings/?tab=account&modal=nsettings-social-advertising. Please give that one a try, as it should take you to a login screen and then straight to the “Manage Social Advertising” box, which looks like a pop-up.
If you are still having problems, you can also access the opt-out by logging into your account, clicking on the “Settings” drop down (under your name at the top right corner of the screen) and then selecting the “Account” tab at the bottom left. The first selection under the Privacy Controls heading is “Manage Social Advertising,” and clicking on that will bring up the box where you can opt out.
We appreciate that you took the time to write and call this to our attention. I don’t know why the link in your letter is different than the one I got when I clicked through the policy, but I will share your letter and the problematic links with our product team to see if they can reproduce what you experienced and repair any bugs they find.
Regards,
[LinkedIn]
Leave A Comment