LinkedIn Misused Emails Of 18 Million Non-User To Target Facebook Ads

Many people have called out Linkedin, one of the biggest professional networking with over half of a billion users, several occasions for how the site can suggest many uncanny connections to its users when it is not clear how can the site can gather enough data to suggest those uncanny connections.

Stated in a report of Ireland’s DPC (Data Protection Commissioner), LinkedIn has used many email addresses belongs to users not in the networking site to target Facebook ads. The DPC decided to conduct an audit after they received a complaint, and they found that the professional networking company indeed violated the regulations of data protection.

To summary, as an attempt to attract more users to come to Linkedin, the company finally admitted using email addresses of many people (around 18 million in total) in a non-transparent way. It has already ceased its practice due to the investigation.

The DPC found there were around 18 million non-LinkedIn users’ email had been obtained by the company in the US and then the company used those emails to target with ads on Facebook without any instruction from the data controller. According to Techcrunch, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other big corporations have moved their data processing operations to Ireland before new European data regulations were implemented.

LinkedIn has issued a statement relating to this investigation: