LinkedIn also wants your data for its AI

LinkedIn is changing its terms of use on November 3, 2025. From then on, the Microsoft subsidiary wants to use all user data for training generative artificial intelligence. However, LinkedIn users can object to this by opting out of the default consent in the "Privacy" section of their LinkedIn account settings.

LinkedIn is informing users of this via pop-ups for logged-in users. As the legal basis for this use of data in the European Economic Area (EEA), LinkedIn is invoking the "legitimate interests" of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This has been approved by the Irish data protection authority Meta Platforms. LinkedIn's European branch is also based in Ireland.

For the future, the social network reserves the right not to provide advance notice of changes to the terms of use, provided that these changes are related to newly introduced features or services. LinkedIn also seeks to clarify that "deepfakes and other unlawful identity fraud are not permitted on our services."

More data for personalized advertising

Outside the European Economic Area and Switzerland, LinkedIn is expanding its use of data for advertising purposes, not only for advertising placed or brokered by LinkedIn, but for the entire Microsoft group and its subsidiaries. Personal data will flow in both directions.

"Starting November 3, 2025, we will share additional data about members (...) with our affiliated company Microsoft so that the Microsoft group of companies can provide you with more personalized and relevant ads. This data may include data from your LinkedIn profile, feed activity, and ad interaction," the company writes. "It does not include data that LinkedIn is not allowed to use for advertising purposes according to your settings." LinkedIn accounts offer the setting option "Share data with affiliated companies and partners."

Conversely, LinkedIn also obtains data from the Microsoft group, for example about people who use Microsoft products. If you don't want this, you can specify this using three setting options: "Ads that are not displayed on LinkedIn," "Third-party data for ads," and "Measure ad performance."

In total, the "Advertising Data" section in LinkedIn's account settings currently includes no fewer than 16 different data usage groups that users can disable individually. In the "Privacy" section, there are 23 additional options, including one to prohibit the use of data for training generative AI.

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