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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 24 2017, @06:03PM
I think the subject sums it up. I recall when the news of Microsoft buying LinkedIn was revealed some were remiss to think they'd do exactly what they're now doing.
Something I recently was surprised to learn is that Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer had a major falling out [vanityfair.com] over Ballmer's resignation and the subsequent appointment of Satyr Nadella as CEO of Microsoft. Two grown men, seemingly mature, who refuse to speak to each other over this incident. Since then Bill Gates has been rapidly selling all his Microsoft stock. Some of Gates' anticompetitive practices were despicable, but Nadella has taken to the company to grand new lows very rapidly. I'm guessing Gates was not happy to see his life's work go this route.
Anyhow, I think anybody who stays with anything Microsoft gets their fingers into is just asking to get burnt. I say this as a professional developer whose primary tool for the better part of a decade has been C#. It's only a matter of time until Nadella's "vision" starts to the infect the developer side of things. Although to avoid pointing the finger entirely at Nadella, it has to be said that as long ago as 2005 Microsoft was considering purchasing Gator [wikipedia.org]. That spyware that was in everything and seems to have become Microsoft's inspiration for everything they're doing.