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Author Topic: LinkedIn Sued for Hacking Users and Spamming Contacts  (Read 4184 times)

Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)

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LinkedIn Sued for Hacking Users and Spamming Contacts
« on: September 23, 2013, 06:57:01 AM »
Might be interesting to see how this pans out..

Four LinkedIn members filed a stunning complaint in federal court last week,  accusing the professional social networking giant of hacking members’ email accounts in an effort to increase membership and revenues. The plaintiffs, seeking class action status, claimed that LinkedIn will surreptitiously harvest email addresses using “open” connections to email accounts such as Yahoo! Mail, Microsoft Mail, Google Gmail, and a number of other web-based email service providers. After doing so, the company will send multiple reminders to the recipients to join, ostensibly on behalf of LinkedIn members.

http://www.thelawprofessor.com/linkedin-sued-for-hacking-users-and-spamming-contacts/
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Robert Krausankas

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Katerina

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Re: LinkedIn Sued for Hacking Users and Spamming Contacts
« Reply #1 on: October 16, 2013, 10:50:43 AM »
Hello everyone!
This is not about LinkedIn, but related - Resume.
To make a story short, I have found my own resume with all my personal contact information, including name, address, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses, with a photo of mine on some document sharing website, "a user generated content site where members of the general public may upload or post documents for public consumption".And all this was posted by someone else, not by me, without any permission of mine. The website policy says that the document may be removed on "Copyright Infringement" ground, and that's what they say about "personal privacy", I quote:
"If you wish to request that we remove a document because it contains personal information about you please understand what personal information is.  According to California Civil Code Section 1798.29 "personal information" means an individual's first name or first initial and last name in combination with any one or more of the following data elements, [ ]:
(1) Social security number.
(2) Driver's license number or California Identification Card number.
(3) Account number, credit or debit card number, in combination with any required security code, access code, or password that would permit access to an individual's financial account.
[ ] "personal information" does not include publicly available information that is lawfully made available to the general public from federal, state, or local government records."
Anyway, I am not happy that my document was uploaded by someone else. And I am thinking, is Resume falling in a category for copyrighted work? Since I wrote a resume, it should be. From another side, it is not that unique, because the content of the resume, including skills, qualifications, job responsibilities, etc., can be found everywhere online and once in resume it is modified and personalized by each person.
Any thoughts?

Lettered

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Re: LinkedIn Sued for Hacking Users and Spamming Contacts
« Reply #2 on: October 24, 2013, 08:44:53 AM »
I really doubt you'd have much to go on if it ever got to court, which I am sure you aren't interested in anyway.  Have you considered sending them a takedown notice?

http://rising.blackstar.com/how-to-send-a-dmca-takedown-notice.html

Edit to add: Even if the resume isn't considered "copyrightable" I would certainly think the photo would be.  I would be inclined to send them a takedown notice if it were me, I think.  If you go that route, I don't think it really matters what the California statutes say since copyright law is federal.  My feeling is that they would probably comply with the takedown request,  and it would be over. My assumption is that they are in the US since they quote California statutes.
« Last Edit: October 24, 2013, 10:40:50 AM by Lettered »

 

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