Sometime after I ejected myself from Facebook I also deleted my LinkedIn account.
I checked in to Hotel LinkedIn when they first started, and as it grew, it consumed services like Slideshare. I have heard of people making important connections via the service, so I do not discount its value for some, to me, I never saw much I did in LinkedIn except linking in. And the email notifications were like roaches, they just kept scurrying in my inBox no matter how many times I clicked preferences and stomped.
My exit from both services was really part of my own response to the cliché “everyone is on Facebook.” It was with about 0.5 seconds of reflection that deleting my LinkedIn account meant I would loose my cherished endorsement for okra folding.
And while sometimes some creepo uses my photo on a fake account, I do not exist on LinkedIn.
If I try to log in, as expected, it finds no account for my email
I thought I had left Hotel LinkedIn.
Then I got this in email today:
Someone from LinkedIn wants to add me to their “professional network” (I cringe because 98% of these never change or personalize the message). If I have no account in LinkedIn, how can they invite me to be added? How can I confirm I know ******* if I am not in the hotel?
Technically, legally, it’s probably likely not a violation of some reading of the law. I bet if I clicked the button, I would be offered a chance to create an account.
But when I checkout out of Hotel LinkedIn, I did it because I did not want to receive ANY emails from their site anymore.
In their privacy policy they can hang on to my information as long as they see fit, I actually have no idea what information they have kept on my account, as spelled out in their privacy policy:
3.2 Data Retention
We retain the personal information you provide while your account is in existence or as needed to provide you services. We may retain your personal information even after you have closed your account if retention is reasonably necessary to comply with our legal obligations, meet regulatory requirements, resolve disputes between Members, prevent fraud and abuse, or enforce this Privacy Policy and our User Agreement. We may retain personal information, for a limited period of time, if requested by law enforcement. Our Customer Service may retain information for as long as is necessary to provide support-related reporting and trend analysis only, but we generally delete or de-personalize closed account data consistent with Section 3.1., except in the case of our plugin impression data (i.e., the information that you visited on sites carrying our social plugin, but which you did not click on), which we de-personalize within 7 days (although we do maintain 30 days worth of webserver logs for security, debugging, and site stability purposes only) by creating aggregate data sets that cannot be traced back to individuals.
I do not know exactly how someone logged into linked in was able to send my a contact request; if they had my email already, I would expect them to… write me an email. If somehow LinkedIN is providing my email address, and I no longer have an active account, well something is fishy.
And if you think ANY company actually deletes your information when you close an account, well standard offer of beach front Arizona ocean property applies.
Here is my Privacy Assertion:
I do not want to see anything from LinkedIn in my inbox
Thankfully, an email filter, will make sure I am fully checked out of LinkedIn email.
Of course, there is a larger hotel operator that I may never be able to extract myself from.
UPDATE: Minutes Later There us yet a second unwanted email from LinkedIn — “********’s invitation is awaiting your response.”
I have a middle finger salute as a response. At the bottom it reads:
You received an invitation to connect. LinkedIn will use your email address to make suggestions to our members in features like People You May Know.
I never gave permission to LinkedIn to use my email address to make suggestions to its members.
It gets more fun. Why not click the unsubscribe link? One click unsubscribe is supposed to be part of the CANSPAM act, right?
The link takes me to a page to create an account
In order for me to stop getting emails from LinkedIn I never consented to, I have to create an account on their site?
Not likely.
UPDATE May 14, 2015: A courteous response from Joe at LinkedIn support; as requested they have blocked my email from being used. Thankfully, I don’t have to listen to the Eagles muzak anymore.
