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LinkedIn apologizes for trying to sneak in a new update that informed some iPhone users, without further explanation, that their "app" would begin sharing their data with nearby users.
The update prompted outrage on Twitter after cybersecurity expert Rik Ferguson received a strange alert when he opened the resume app to read a new message: "LinkedIn would like to make data available to nearby Bluetooth devices even when you're not using the app."
That gave Ferguson, vice president of research at the cybersecurity firm Trend Micro, a handful of concerns, he told Vocativ. Among them: "the lack of specificity, which data, when, under what conditions, to which devices, why does it need to happen when I'm not using the app, what are the benefits to me, where is the feature announcement and explanation, why wasn't it listed in the app update details."A mobile app asking for additional permissions isn't a novel occurrence, but broad requests are often met with skepticism from privacy advocates and security researchers. Many shopping apps, for instance, leave a user's bluetooth connection turned on, allowing marketers to track you as you enter a store and linger near certain products.
Reached for comment, LinkedIn said it's a mistake — that some iPhone users were accidentally subject to undeveloped test feature the company is still working on.
My take on how it would work is that whenever you come into the range of another computerphone with bluetooth active — which for class 2 is 10 meters (33 ft) — the LinkedIn app would pop up a quick summary of each other's resume.
Perfect for those times when you visit a big meeting with people A and their LinkedIn app show you just recently had a gig with corporation B that they really hate. As for apologizing, do remember that large corporations only retreat if the alternative hurts economically. For background information it might be good to know that LinkedIn was bought in 2016 by Microsoft, which happens to be very much in on the phone-home theme. Now if Tinder would auto-share in the same manner the various habits with any nearby phone during family gatherings, that would be a real hilarious circus starter.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by NotSanguine on Monday April 24 2017, @03:53AM (3 children)
With this bullshit for everyone, not just iPhone users. So get ready for the new and improved LinkedIn.
I received the following email this past Friday (21 April, 2017):
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 24 2017, @04:24AM
Yep, got the same message today (Sunday), must be rolling it out to all of LinkedIn. I've been waiting for something like this, hoping that it wouldn't happen, but now it's time to close my account.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 24 2017, @05:51AM
Jesus christ, what part of human interaction will be real now?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Monday April 24 2017, @12:28PM
Linkedin reminds me of those late night infocmercials selling multi-tool pocket sized combo fishing pole soldering iron and kite string spool where all the individual products, when separate and optimized, are usable in their own context, but combined its just a puddle of regurgitated breakfast buffet no one wants no matter how much corporate hype is wrapped around it.
I see these comments about linkedin being the devil for spamming and social idiocy but I don't care because I use it as a really handy online resume editor. I can access it anywhere on the planet. Its got a decent pdf exporter. Thats ALL I do with it. I don't flirt with recruiters, get tindr or grindr dates, don't take technology training classes, don't hang out in the groups, like the dude on Hogans Heros "I see nothing I hear nothing I know nothing" I don't care about some mis-feature for an app I don't have installed on my phone.
Linkedin is one hell of a nice VLM endorsed online resume editor. Its the one and only thing I use it for, and it does a good job.
The main downside of using Linkedin as a resume editor is its pitiful and cringeworthy watching them squirm around desperate to find relevance. If you're the worlds best online resume editor, embrace it and flaunt it, don't act like the worlds biggest dork trying to hide your own super power.
Linkedin marketing strategy right now is like a sleazy pickup line Uh yeah babe about that whole resume editor thing, huh huh huh, yeah before you turn me down, thats totally not me, not anymore, I've totally turned my life around and I'm really a swiss army knife with a fish cleaning and scaling blade combined with toenail clippers, tick tweezers, and a hair comb and an emergency sewing kit to look good, you know, like for travel, to like hunting lodges and stuff, that's totally the real inner me, so uh how about it babe? How could anyone turn down a line like that?
You know what else I can tell from very far away? Linkedin marketing sucks but you can tell it was done completely by committee so there's no one to take the blame and no way to ever improve it without firing the higher up execs who implemented the committee. So they're kinda doomed.