NET 303: Online Policy Primer

An Analysis of LinkedIn’s Terms of Service
By Angeline Hildreth
Image uploaded from LinkedIn.com
NET 303: Online Policy Primer

This Online Policy Primer Presentation was written as part of an
assignment for Bachelor of Arts (Internet communications) at Curtin
University, Perth, WA. It has no association with LinkedIn or affiliation
with LinkedIn. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the
information.
This presentation is for educational purposes only and not a substitute
for legal advice. Please seek professional advice from a lawyer for any
legal advice pertaining to legal issues.
DISCLAIMER

LinkedIn is a social media platform aimed at
providing social networking to professionals.
Image by GDJ (2015)

It claims to be “The World’s largest professional
network”.

The basic service is free to register. It also offers a
premium service with a monthly fee.

Regardless of the type of service; whether it is free or fee paying, you need to join
LinkedIn and become a member to use the service, though you can visit the web site
and browse member’s profiles.
By selecting ‘Join now’ you are agreeing to their Terms of Service (TOS or User
Agreement), Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.
Image: uploaded from LinkedIn.com

“If you have any concerns about …any manner
permitted in this Privacy Policy and the User
Agreement, you should not become a Member,
visit our websites, apps or otherwise use our
Services (LinkedIn, 2014).”
What if you do not agree!

What LinkedIn is saying is, if you do not agree then you should not
use their service or visit their website.
If you do, they will apply the clauses mentioned in their Terms of
Agreement.

Terms of Service is a legal contract between you and your chosen service
provider.
Image by Sivvus (2009)
READ IT BEFORE YOU AGREE TO IT!

LinkedIn’s policies contain a number
of clauses relating to ownership,
privacy, copyright, censorship which
raise concerns and are worth a closer
look.
Image uploaded from LinkedIn.com Images: by Levis501 (2013)

But how many of us have time to read through pages and
pages of these complex documents before giving up and
blindly agreeing to them?
Image by Doodleguy (2014)Images uploaded from LinkedIn.com

Image by Palomaironique (2010)
In agreeing to LinkedIn Terms of Service, you are
obligated to them to:
 Be at least 14 years old in Australia and have no
restriction to use their site.
Provide them with your real name, email address
and password.
Agree to keep your information up to date.
Give them non-exclusive license: transferrable and
sub-licensable rights to your information.

Image by Mestre-kame (2008)
Your information is also collected by LinkedIn when
you visit their website.
“Our Privacy Policy applies to any Member or Visitor.
We collect information when you use our Services to
offer you a personalized and relevant experience,
including growing your network and enabling business
opportunities.”
Visitors BEWARE

These are just a few examples of what you have
agreed to when joining LinkedIn. Let’s have a
closer look at some areas you have agreed to.

Image: Uploaded from LinkedIn .com
“You own your content and are responsible for protecting your data. You are
also required to give LinkedIn non-exclusive license to your data and the
rights to retain your personal information, content of your posts. (LinkedIn,
2015).”
Who owns the content?

Simply put; the content and liabilities belong to
you.
LinkedIn has the rights to collect vast amounts of
your information including information on people
you associate with and your financial details for their
benefit. Though, they claim to use the information
for your benefit.

COPYRIGHT
“Please note that whether or not we disable access to
or remove content, LinkedIn may make a good faith
attempt to forward the written notification, including
the complainant’s contact information, to the Member
who posted the content and/or take other reasonable
steps to notify the Member that LinkedIn has received
notice of an alleged violation of intellectual property
rights or other content violation.”

But …
LinkedIn takes no responsibility to
stop others from copying your
information.

“ We collect information when you fill out
a profile… – like your job title, education,
and skills – helps you get found by other
people for opportunities.”
PRIVACY AND SURVEILLANCE

Image by Mav (2012)Image by GDJ (2015)
Basically, LinkedIn collects all of its member’s and visitor’s personal
information and has user's detailed profiles at their fingertips.
They also collect content from your email address book or calendar,
your participations in various activities and the web sites or ads you
clicked on.
Your every move is monitored using Cookie Technology (Lessig,
1998: August,).

LinkedIn use cookie technology to track your
browsing habits both on theirs and other sites you
visit (LinkedIn, 2014).
Though they claim it is to enable and support their
security features and to help them detect malicious
activity and violations of their User Agreement
(Harry, 2014).

“We may use cookies to show you relevant
advertising both on and off the LinkedIn site. We
may also use a cookie to learn whether members
who saw an ad on LinkedIn later visited the
advertiser's site… We may also work with a
partner to show you an ad on or off LinkedIn,
such as after you've visited a partner's site or
application (LinkedIn, 2014).”
So, who do you think is really benefitting from cookie
technologies here (Brown & Muchira, 2004, p. 66)!

Image by Last-Dino (2012)
“We also receive the internet protocol (“IP”)
address of your computer or the proxy server
that you use to access the web, your computer
operating system details, your type of web
browser, your mobile device (including your
mobile device identifier provided by your mobile
device operating system) … and the name of your
ISP or your mobile carrier.”
This is an invasion of privacy; DON’T YOU THINK
(Zittrain, 2009; Goettke & Christiana, 2007)!

LinkedIn does, and will exercise their
authority to deny access and remove
content/accounts without notifying you!
They will do this if they deem you to
have broken the agreement (Villeneuve,
2006).
Who is the gatekeeper censoring our content and
account?

“If there is a change in control or sale of all or part of
LinkedIn, we may share your information with a third
party, who will have the right to use that information
in line with this Privacy Policy.”
Image: by Hatalar205 (2013)

What this means is that you have unknowingly, as part of
the agreement, given LinkedIn the right to sell your
personal details as part of the company assets. Should
they decide to sell the company, don’t expect a share of
the capital gain. You won’t get any!

“We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make
significant changes in the way we treat your personal information, or
to the Privacy Policy, we will provide notice to you on the Services or
by some other means, such as email…Using our Services after a
notice of changes has been communicated to you or published on our
Services shall constitute consent to the changed terms or practices.”
They can change the policy at any time. They may email you or publish the
changes on their website. It is your responsibility to keep checking for changes
for they may not email you the changes. The onus is put back on you!

Knowing what you do now; would you try and read the Terms
of Service before signing up to any of the internet platforms?
I certainly would!

Reference
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Brown, M., & Muchira, R. (2004). Investigating the Relationship between Internet Privacy Concern and Online
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NET 303: Online Policy Primer

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