LinkedIn, 13 million fine for spam – Computer Olympus (Zeus)

The platform must compensate users, asphyxiated in the repeated calls by email to connect with other members.

Although it likes to call “professional network “LinkedIn is as intrusive and more than any other social network and functionality Add links is the best proof of this.

When you sign up to LinkedIn, he asks these new members to be able to access other accounts, such as email, to identify new contacts already on the social networks with which establish connections.

So LinkedIn send on behalf of the newly-users of e-mail contacts with which invites users themselves to give their consent to the connection between the profiles; if you do not answer, he invites two reminder messages, at some distance from each other, before giving up.

In many American users this behavior is not liked; rather, they considered invasive of privacy, and in 2013 began a class action against the platform, guilty of having used without their knowledge email contacts to send messages considered to be the worst spam.

The court called upon to assess the issue that first established, however, are the users themselves to LinkedIn grant permission to use the email account to send messages to the initial invitation.

The same court also decided, however, that the two subsequent email to be a problem for these, in fact, LinkedIn has not asked for any additional permission, assuming naively that what was initially given enough, and wrong.

The two messages were considered spam by the judge and the practices of the social network injurious to privacy, which have now collectively entitled to a compensation of 13 million dollars; Also recipients of email reminders can get in the file to receive their compensation.

Obviously, the greater the number of users who will claim the lower the amount of compensation the same; if they fall below 10 dollars, LinkedIn will add additional $ 750 thousand to 13 million already allocated.

Beyond the disbursement of money, the social network is committed to offering users a way to avoid sending reminders via email.