Why Linked-in does it wrong

A while back, I wrote about an experience with a scam/recruiter who managed to call me over at work, trying to get names and emails of people I worked with. I’ve been recently very annoyed at linked-in for a similar issue. Here’s the story.

Like previously, it started by unsolicited communications from some probably overpaid, overzealous and probably pretty stupid scam-recruiter who knows shit-all about the industry (yes, I really hate them!), trying to “get in touch” and “connect” on LinkedIn. You know the drill, you get an email from someone you don’t know, it comes from LinkedIn, he/she wants to add you to his/her network etc etc. Plenty of these fill everyone’s inbox, and I’m pretty sure the success rate is close to being nil these days. Where do recruiters stand on the ladder of most despised people? Before or After estate agents…

Now, receiving an invite on LinkedIn can be normal, and if you use the site regularly, well, you probably get a few of these through friends and colleagues anyways, or from people you genuinely met and want to get in touch with professionally through the website. And why not!? That’s what LinkedIn is for right?

The problem

Now, what’s not normal is that the invite I received, which sparked this train of thoughts (or rant, as you wish), was sent to an address I do not publish on LinkedIn.

And that’s where things start to get tasty: it seems that on LinkedIn, you can send invites to any email you want, whether or not you know these persons, or are linked at all with them through any Nth degree of contact. Maybe for this you need a special account, possibly paid, but basically, it means that any moronic recruiter may send god knows how many emails, through LinkedIn, to whichever addresses they want, under the LinkedIn, generally trusted, banner, as an “invite to connect”. (1)

Let me rephrase that: “Any moron with the correct LinkedIn account can send spam-phishing emails to anyone through an established and trusted corporation (in email domains terms) without any problems, without getting caught by spam filters, and without being flagged as high spammers” (2)

Now LinkedIn, you may fail to see why, on your website, (2) is exactly the same than (1), but I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one out there that has a problem with this. You are facilitating widespread spamming and potential data thievery here!

Right, I see you coming with your “But you can unsubscribe your email from the invites!”… Unfortunately, even if it’s written “unsubscribe” on the invite email, it’s no such thing. It’s rather the opposite. You see, Linked-in decided to implement this “unsubscribe” as an opt-in feature, rather than an opt-out. Have I lost you? It’s normal, I’m pretty sure Linked-in did this intentionally with some clever wording/marketing to do just that and cover their ass! (and yes I got the terms wrong in my email below… darn!)

Explanation

When you decide to “unsubscribe” an email address you’ve been contacted on, you are actually registering it into a “do not contact” list… That’s a lot of negations, I know, but basically, you’re GIVING another email address to LinkedIn. What they do with it, only they know… But I would bet that’s not all pretty business.

So in order to NOT get spammed by LinkedIn’s service, I have to GIVE them an email address?? Is it just me or is this just plain old racketeering?

Furthermore, when the “unsubscribe” link leads to a page not working/not finished/building in progress, for the past 3 months that’s more than enough to raise alarm bells. (At the time of writing this, it seems that LinkedIn only just fixed the issue: you can now give them your email addresses!)

Please LinkedIn! Fix your service! It should be a tool, not a chore!

Below is my conversation thread with LinkedIn customer service about the subject, my last email being a request to change the feature itself.

Conversation

———————————————-

My last reply 12/01/2011 21:17

Hi Hideki,

Thanks for your reply, I since then managed to get through one of the site’s pages to apparently add my email the sort of list you are talking about, to which no invites or other communications will be sent.

Having done that, I am hugely disappointed, as I would MUCH RATHER this functionality be an opt-in than an opt out, as linked-in is basically serving here the purpose of recruiters/spammers (not to mention selling this information to “carefuly selected partners”, let’s not fool anyone here, this is done…). I hate receiving these unsolicited emails, and if this is facilitated by your service, it’s even worse as they are not caught by spam filters, given the “genuine” name linked-in gives then to disguise themselves behind.

Please could you take this email as a formal request from myself for this kind of “enhancement” to be removed from the site? This functionality might be seen at first as a “plus”, but I can guarantee you, I consider this as really bad practice. Where I can manage the list of my “disallowed” emails is also eluding me, and that is also a negative point for you, as you effectively have on record, on your system, emails I do not want to be contacted with through linked-in. As I own fully my domain name, you would potentially have on record quite a few of my email addresses, and I believe this is not exactly legal. Please understand me here, I am not going against the “small print” and I am sure this stuff is covered by your lawyers so you can’t get sued, but in terms of “service”, you’re much more on the “bad guys side” than on the helpful one…

I hope this clarifies the situation, and I hope I’m not the only one (who’s not a recruiter, obviously!) speaking about this issue, as this is really serious!

Kind regards

———————————————- Answer LinkedIn Customer Support Message 12/01/2011 21:17Subject: Enough unsolicited emails through Linked in please! Hi Mathieu,I’m sorry it’s taken so long to get back to you.

I would be happy to help you with this. We have an option to add this email to our do not contact list which will stop all future connection requests, messages, and reminders from LinkedIn. Can you confirm the email address in question?

I look forward to hearing your response in order to further assist you.

Hideki LinkedIn Customer Service

———————————————- Original Contact: Member Comment: Mathieu Davy 11/28/2011 03:55

Hello, I’m receiving regularly emails on an address I own which is NOT advertised on linked in, asking me to connect with these persons. These are all the time aggressive recruiters I can’t care less about and I had enough of these useless invitations.

On the invitations, and the regular reminders (that I can’t care lessa bout either) that you send me, the unsubscribe link leads me to a “in building” page. Clearly, something is wrong with your service. I want to unsubscribe, but I can’t, so I get spam from people who abuse your system constantly.

Is there anything you can do about this?

I repeat the issue: I’m receiving invites and reminders on an address not adrvertised on linked in, and I can’t unsubscribe from them. Thanks