It started with MySpace’s spam overload and subsequent downfall. Now we have Google Plus, whose main goal is getting our demographic info to improve their search engine, and Facebook, who’s recent “shady” IPO will surely be followed by massive lawsuits. With all this nonsense going on, it seems we can’t really trust the e-worlds we live in anymore. Personally, I deleted my Facebook and started hanging out with actual people again.
At least we still have the professional, rock solid LinkedIn to fall back on, right? Wait…all their passwords just got hacked?? and they store your private information without authorization!??
So while MySpace is already dead, Facebook is floundering, and Google Plus is underused, LinkedIn has recently taken a couple of huge, brand-damaging shots. But can we still trust them?
Recently, 6.5 million LinkedIn passwords were stolen by a Russian hacker. How do we know he stole them? Because he told us! He posted all the passwords in a web forum. LinkedIn has admitted they were breached and are urging everyone to change their passwords. The crook only posted passwords without usernames, but there is no telling what other information he gathered. So please, change your LinkedIn passwords! And if you use the same password for everything:
A.) Stop doing that!
B.) Change ALL your passwords immediately.
Hackers exploit weaknesses all the time. They are crafty. LinkedIn wasn’t as secure as they thought– it was an honest mistake. We can forgive them for that, right?
Not so fast. New reports have also come out that show LinkedIn’s iPhone and iPad app have been transmitting your calendar appointments back to LinkedIn’s servers without your knowledge. Yikes.
According to this New York Times article, LinkedIn accesses data from calendars synced to your device and sends all the details of your meetings back to its servers. The researchers who uncovered this process argue that there is no legitimate reason why LinkedIn would need to store this information. The information is sent back to LinkedIn if you opt into the “Calendar Sync” feature. The scary thing is, the app grabs all calendar details– notes, attendees, locations, everything; and it collects and stores these details for any calendar connected to your phone.
The good news is, you can opt out of sharing your calendar easily by going to [Settings -> LinkedIn -> Calendar -> “Off”]
In summary, if you reset your password, and opt out of sharing your calendar, you can continue to safely use LinkedIn. Social media is still relatively new and all the laws haven’t fully hashed out yet. There’s big money to be made from gathering your personal data, and that is reason enough to be very skeptical any time you sign up, opt in, click yes, or create an account online.
