LinkedIn reportedly scanning browser extensions to track users across the web
By
Seth Honda
1mo ago· 9 min readenNews
90/100
Golden Brown
Bagelometer↗
Fresh out the oven, still warm. Top of the tray.
Score90TypenewsSentimentvery negative
Summary
The article reports that LinkedIn is scanning users' browser extensions to track their web activity even when not signed into the platform. It criticizes the company's justification of fraud prevention as a cover for invasive data collection practices, and warns about the privacy implications of a professional networking platform being able to correlate web traffic across the internet back to individual users.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledWhen companies get caught doing this sort of thing, the response is almost always the same: 'we're using this technology to combat fraud,' or 'ensure positive user experience,' or 'save computing resources,' or some other hog wash.
The simple truth, there's no reason to be collecting data that can be used to identify a user across the web if they're not signed in to your service.
The harm of companies like Experian or LinkedIn being able to correlate all of your web traffic back to you is not hard to imagine.
When companies get caught doing this sort of thing, the response is almost always the same: "we're using this technology to combat fraud," or "ensure positive user experience," or "save computing resources," or some other hog wash.
The simple truth, ther
