Linkedin sued for sharing users’ private data with third parties to train AI models

LinkedIn is being accused by its Premium users of sharing their private messages, such as InMails, with third parties. The claim is that the user’s personal data was used to train AI models without the users’ knowledge or consent.

The lawsuit was filed in San Jose, California, on behalf of LinkedIn Premium users whose private InMail messages were shared with third parties for AI training before September 18, a report by Reuters reveals.

The issue began in August 2024, when LinkedIn introduced a privacy setting that allowed users to opt in or out of sharing their data. However, in September, the company updated its privacy policy to say that user data could be used to train AI models. A note in its FAQ page further stated that opting out of data sharing would not undo any data already used for AI training.

The plaintiffs have said in the lawsuit that this update was LinkedIn’s way of justifying its actions and hiding the fact that it had already shared private data without disclosing it to the users. They stated this violated user trust and breached LinkedIn’s promise to only use data to improve its platform.