A group of LinkedIn users have now launched a lawsuit against the company, claiming that LinkedIn hacks into the external email accounts of its users. According to the angry customers’ allegation, this is done to gain the contacts lists of the users.
Banking on these grievances, the group of LinkedIn users have requested a federal judge to look into the matter and ban the company from accessing the external email accounts of its users. Moreover, these users are also demanding that LinkedIn must pay back any money that it has made by using the identities of its current customers.
LinkedIn has naturally denied these allegations and claims that they are without merit. According to a LinkedIn spokesperson, “LinkedIn is committed to putting our members first, which includes being transparent about how we protect and utilize our members’ data.”
The angry group of users, on the other hand, insists that bad play takes place. According to their statement, “LinkedIn pretends to be that user and downloads the e-mail addresses contained anywhere in that account to LinkedIn’s servers. LinkedIn is able to download these addresses without requesting the password for the external e-mail accounts or obtaining users’ consent.”
LinkedIn has resorted by stating that it never sends out invitations to a user’s contacts until the user authorizes the company to do so. It remains to be seen which side the court sides with. If the allegations against LinkedIn prove true, this may hamper the company’s rather rapid growth of the user base.
Courtesy: Bloomberg
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