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LinkedIn has been displaying advertisements for businesses with users’ profile pictures and names without their consent, according to a class action lawsuit pending in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
The LinkedIn website connects professionals and job seekers with potential jobs and opportunities for networking. The LinkedIn jobs site is a for-profit networking service that offers free accounts as well as paid premium services. It also sells advertising to Canadian and foreign companies to display to its users.
To register for a LinkedIn account, users must create a profile with their full name and contact information. Most users also provide a LinkedIn cover photo on their account. In fact, LinkedIn considers accounts without photos to be incomplete and will routinely prompt the user to upload a LinkedIn cover photo.
According to the LinkedIn advertising class action lawsuit, the LinkedIn website had more than 100 million users by March 2011. Currently, LinkedIn has more than 630 million users worldwide. More than 16 million LinkedIn users live in Canada.
“LinkedIn makes money by selling advertising for display to users, selling premium account subscriptions with additional features to users, and by charging corporate and business customers with access to job candidates through its LinkedIn Recruiter product,” the LinkedIn advertising class action lawsuit states.
Since June 2011, LinkedIn has used “Dynamic Ads” as one type of advertising format. LinkedIn Dynamic Ads are personalized advertisements targeted to each user. The Dynamic Ads embed a user’s LinkedIn cover photo and/or registered name in the body of the body of the advertisement. Each member will see their own personal information; member profile information is reportedly not displayed to other LinkedIn members.
Dynamic Ads may include “Jobs You May Be Interested In” ads and “Picture Yourself” ads that are targeted at companies that are seeking employees. These ads allegedly embed the users’ LinkedIn cover photo and name along with the name of the company with the job opening.
Plaintiff Robert Andrew Cronk of British Columbia is a LinkedIn user who says he never consented to the use of his LinkedIn cover photo and name in Dynamic Ads by LinkedIn. However, he says LinkedIn has sold advertising using his name and photo in Dynamic Ads, profiting from the sale of the advertising.
According to the LinkedIn advertising class action lawsuit, Robert is not alone. He says that LinkedIn has displayed users’ LinkedIn cover photo and name in advertisements since 2011 without users’ consent.
“LinkedIn’s User Agreement and Privacy Policy are silent on the existence of Dynamic Ads,” Robert alleges in the LinkedIn advertising class action lawsuit. “LinkedIn’s User Agreement and Privacy Policy do not provide express or implied consent to LinkedIn to use users’ profile photos or registered names in Dynamic Ads.”
LinkedIn has reportedly enabled Dynamic Ads automatically for all users. Although the company does allow users to manually disable the use of their name and photo in advertising, LinkedIn reportedly does not make the option easily accessible.
Robert argues that LinkedIn has breached section three of the Privacy Act and related enactments, which prohibit companies from using the name and image of a person for advertising without the person’s consent.
Robert filed the LinkedIn advertising class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and a proposed Class of all persons in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador who were registered users of LinkedIn with a LinkedIn cover photo since 2011.
“The Plaintiff and Class Members have not consented to the use of their profile photos and registered names for use in Dynamic Ads by LinkedIn,” the LinkedIn advertising class action lawsuit says. “Nevertheless, LinkedIn has sold advertising using the Plaintiff and Class Members’ registered names and profile photos in Dynamic Ads and has profited from the sale of that advertising.”
According to the LinkedIn advertising class action lawsuit, Class Members are entitled to statutory damages and injunctive relief to bar LinkedIn from continuing to use members’ name and likeness for advertising purposes without their consent. Robert asserts the LinkedIn cover photo is considered a “likeness” within the meaning of the various provinces’ Privacy Acts.
Are you a LinkedIn user with a profile picture? How do you feel about LinkedIn using your picture for Dynamic Ads? Tell us your thoughts in the comment section below!
Robert is represented by Joel Zanatta, Kevin McLaren, Alexia Majidi and Mathew Good of Hammerberg Lawyers LLP.
The LinkedIn Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is Robert Andrew Cronk v. LinkedIn Corporation, Case No. VLC-S-S-205247, in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Canada.
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13 thoughts onLinkedIn Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over Advertising Its Users
This comes as no surprise to me… as all social media platforms cross lines with our rights.
Microsoft is the worst. Unsubscribing from LinkedIn spam emails is ridiculously convoluted and time consuming.
This advertising using my picture and name is on par for a Microsoft owned company.
Too bad them losing a lawsuit will just be, ” the cost of doing business”