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Privacy Violation: Phantom LinkedIn Connection

by WireNews Limited - Open-Publishing - Friday 19 December 2014

The other day, I decided to have a clear-out.

I began the process by sifting through my many thousands of LinkedIn connections and started to weed them out based on a series of ’rules’ that I made up as I went through the process.

Rule: No photograph. Gone.

Rule: A logo image instead of a face photo. Gone.

Rule: No recent contact with me. Gone.

As my list of connections rapidly decreased I began to realise that I didn’t really ’know’ the remaining users, apart from two family members who also have LinkedIn accounts. So I deleted the remaining 1,500 connections leaving what I thought was my wife and my eldest daughter.

The problem was that on the front page of my LinkedIn profile it showed that I had three connections. According to the connection list there were just the two.

So, who was that phantom connection?

I spent a good part of the day clicking and searching and trying to figure out who the missing connection was, to no avail. In fact, I couldn’t find any LinkedIn process by which I could identify or reveal the phantom connection. So I submitted a LinkedIn support ticket.

I was told that due to ’privacy concerns’ LinkedIn could not reveal the identity of the phantom connection, nor could or would LinkedIn disconnect us.

Based upon my understanding how the LinkedIn process works and my reading of the company’s privacy policy, I should have 100% control over who I am connected with, but LinkedIn flatly refused to disconnect this phantom connection from my profile and the company’s software doesn’t provide me with a way to do so either, so I created a new profile, connected to my wife and daughter’s profile and deleted the first account.

Simples.

But the question remains: Why would LinkedIn permit another user to connect to my account and not disclose to me who that user is and why would LinkedIn protect that user’s privacy while violating my privacy rights?

Julian Assange wrote recently:

"Twitter is a police interview that never ends. Facebook has all your friends wearing a wire. YouTube has you in the dock talking to the judge. Every social media user creates a vast library of statements that may be taken out of context by vengeful or ambitious officials. Users should be displayed their Miranda rights each time they log on."

I figure Assange knows a thing or two about the growing ’police State’ and the real purpose of Social Media. You may want to perform the same exercise I did on your own LinkedIn account... or maybe you’re just blissfully happy in your ignorance...

Read more at http://www.wirenews.co.uk/op-ed/global/22930/privacy-violation-phantom-linkedin-connection#G4c4t94DBVUtW6Gj.99

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