LinkedIn Uses Your Data for AI Training: What You Should Know

Learn how LinkedIn is using your data to train AI models, how to opt out, and the privacy concerns raised by this change in their updated policy.

NEWS

Shubham Sahu

9/19/20242 min read

AI generated image of linkedin and robots
AI generated image of linkedin and robots

LinkedIn Is Training AI Models on Your Data: What You Need to Know

If you're a LinkedIn user, it’s important to know that LinkedIn has started using your personal data to train AI models. According to a report by 404Media, LinkedIn quietly opted users into this data usage without prior notice. This move was part of a new privacy setting and updated privacy policy that now includes training generative AI models.

LinkedIn’s Data Privacy and AI Training Concerns

LinkedIn's updated privacy policy reveals that the company may use your personal data to improve and develop products and services, including generative AI models. The platform uses this data to enhance its AI capabilities, which helps in creating features like writing assistants. However, this has raised privacy concerns among users.

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How to Opt Out of LinkedIn’s AI Data Training

If you want to stop LinkedIn from using your data to train AI models, you can opt out through your privacy settings. Go to the Data Privacy tab in your account settings, and find the option labeled “Data for Generative AI Improvement.” Switch this toggle to “off” to prevent LinkedIn from using your data for AI training in the future.

Impact of Opting Out

By opting out, LinkedIn and its affiliates won’t use your data for future AI model training. However, this doesn’t affect any data already used for training. LinkedIn uses privacy-enhancing technologies to redact or remove personal data from its training sets, and it does not train its models on data from users in the EU, EEA, or Switzerland.

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Additional Privacy Measures

In addition to opting out of AI training, LinkedIn has other machine learning tools for personalization and moderation that don’t involve content generation. To exclude your data from these tools as well, you need to fill out the LinkedIn Data Processing Objection Form.

LinkedIn's Silent Opt-In Controversy

LinkedIn's silent opt-in for using user data for AI model training has come to light recently. This follows a similar controversy with Meta, which admitted to using non-private user data for AI model training dating back to 2007.

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For more details on how LinkedIn uses your data and how to manage your privacy settings, you can review their updated privacy policy and FAQs.