LinkedIn Will Use User Data To Train AI But Can Be Opt Out

LinkedIn insists that private messages will not be used in AI learning (photo: dock. pexels)

LinkedIn announced a new plan that may make some users wary. This professional platform owned by Microsoft will use user data such as public profiles and posts to train their generative AI models. However, LinkedIn insists that private messages will not be used as well.

The good news is that users have full control to refuse. LinkedIn provides an opt out option in the settings menu so that new data is no longer used for AI training.

This move is actually not surprising. Like humans learning from books, interactions, and experiences, AI also needs "knowledge" collected from text, photos, to posts on the internet. Therefore, big platforms are competing to take advantage of user data.

Meta, for example, had proposed the use of photos uploaded to Facebook to train their AI model. Likewise Anthropic, who said conversations with Claude AI were also used for model development.

According to LinkedIn on its official help page: This data can include details from your profile and the public content you post on LinkedIn; but does not include private messages. We use the legal basis of interest to process your data for this purpose.

Even so, LinkedIn added: You can opt out at any time in the settings if you don't want your data to be used this way.

This step can be done easily. Users only need to log into their LinkedIn account, then open Settings & Privacy > Data Privacy > Data for Creative AI Improvement, then turn off the Use my data for training content AI model.

However, there is an important note: data that has already been processed will not be withdrawn. This opt out feature only applies to new data after the user disables it.

With more and more technology companies taking advantage of user data to train AI, transparency and control options like this is crucial. Moreover, now more and more parties are suing AI developers because they are considered to use data without permission. LinkedIn certainly doesn't want to be dragged into the vortex of such legal disputes.