How to Prevent LinkedIn from Using You in Its Advertising
You might have missed a little news story last week: LinkedIn has started using your personal information in advertising. That's right -- it's entirely possible that your unintentional endorsement can appear online to sell something for a LinkedIn advertiser.
This is a change to LinkedIn's settings and policies, and it kind of arrived in the dark of night with little fanfare or warning. This is not entirely unlike a similar move by Facebook several months ago. But perhaps I expected a little more from LinkedIn, given its business focus and audience. Here are the details, directly from LinkedIn:
LinkedIn may sometimes pair an advertiser's message with social content from LinkedIn's network in order to make the ad more relevant. When LinkedIn members recommend people and services, follow companies, or take other actions, their name/photo may show up in related ads shown to you. Conversely, when you take these actions on LinkedIn, your name/photo may show up in related ads shown to LinkedIn members. By providing social context, we make it easy for our members to learn about products and services that the LinkedIn network is interacting with.Now, while this message specifically suggests that your picture can be used in the ads, LinkedIn recently blogged that your picture won't be used, which was a response to users who objected to the advertising move. That's fine, as far as it goes, but according to LinkedIn's own settings checkbox, they still reserve the right to do so anyway. Not interested in having your profile and poossibly even your photo integrated into advertising? You can turn this feature off. Here's what to do:
- On LinkedIn, click your account name and choose Settings.
- Click the Account tab.
- Click Manage Social Advertising.
- Clear the checkbox for LinkedIn may use my name, photo in social advertising and click Save.