LinkedIn® changes to their Terms of Service (TOS) went into effect March 26, 2014.
- Did you review them?
- If you’re like most of us, probably not
Since they came smack dab in the middle of my unscientific poll of LinkedIn members, I thought I should take a peek.
The following highlights a few LinkedIn® changes.
But don’t take my word for it.
- You can review the new User Agreement on LinkedIn®
- Or read their blog post about the changes
LinkedIn® Changes
The TOS changes occurred to the User Agreement and the Privacy Policy.
Both summaries offered by LinkedIn® reveal more clarification than actual changes.
Privacy Policy
- Acquired companies – policy also applies to acquired companies’ users, SlideShare and Pulse
- Mobile number – new users can use mobile number to register (instead of or in addition to email address)
- Profile information – information in SlideShare/Pulse profiles may be used and shared so check what’s there
- Address book – imported information is stored and will be used to make recommendations – beware that sending invitations could give access to your email address or mobile number (if sent by text) – you can remove your address book or other synced services
- Ads – your profile information is used for targeting ads – you can opt-out of LinkedIn ads on third-party sites
The above barely scratches the surface.
- Most of what you input or upload can be used
- You can opt-out or choose what is public by going to Privacy & Settings
User Agreement
Again, most of the changes are clarifications.
You’d be surprised what’s been in place from the beginning. More on that later.
The following are select changes/clarifications.
- Visitor access – Your content may be available to unregistered users (called Visitors)
- SlideShare – If you have a SlideShare account, you are agreeing to LinkedIn® TOS – references to SlideShare has been added throughout the Agreement
- Misappropriation – If someone copies or uses your content inappropriately, you are on your own – LinkedIn® is not responsible – it’s not clear (to me) but it does not appear any action will be taken (like the removal of a violator’s profile)
Little-known rules discussed in prior posts remain in place.
I decided to create a SlideShare presentation that features a few of the LinkedIn® Don’ts. How many did you know?
A Few LinkedIn® Don’ts
By the way, if you are viewing the SlideShare presentation here at the blog, don’t click on the “Check out the post” link.
Unless you like running in circles back to this post.
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The next several posts turn our attention to various social media platforms. I would love to hear your point of view. What are your favorite platforms and why?
well, your article and slideshow are helpful I think… now if LI will only wait a year or two before making more changes
Thanks, Cathy!
Hope springs eternal. 😉 Thanks, Anne!
The misappropriation part is interesting. More like concerning.
So you get to keep your copyright. But you have to grant LinkedIn a license so broad that they get pretty much every right involved in owning that copyright. And then they try to stretch that even further by saying you can’t stop others on their network from copying it or even posting a derivative version or some sort (perhaps not even crediting you), and they won’t do a damned thing about it?
I really don’t see how that’s a legitimate policy when considering DMCA rules. If someone uses their service to host something that infringes on your copyright, and you send them a DMCA notice, they would have to act on it or risk losing their protections under the law. That’s my understanding of it. Even if you grant LinkedIn itself a right to to re-use what you post or create derivative works, the right to create those derivatives shouldn’t automatically transfer to their other users. Otherwise every LI user would have a license to use everything posted to LI in any possible way they want. Something smells awfully fishy about that. Any thoughts, oh LinkedIn guru? 😉
Yeah, I thought that was interesting as well, Jenn. It may have been in there all along but I didn’t notice it. Like I said, it’s not clear to me if they are totally washing their hands clean of complaints but it sure sounds like it.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Jenn.