Articles about LinkedIn

LinkedIn has failed to address a security flaw for over a year that puts at risk the data of all of its over 300 million users and means that sensitive user information can be pilfered easily.

A report conducted by Zimperium Mobile Defense Security found a straightforward MITM attack that uses an SSL stripping technique allows hackers to steal user credentials and gain full control of an account.

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A judge in the Northern District of California has paved the way for a lawsuit against the social network LinkedIn for violating the privacy of its users. The complaint was that LinkedIn "violated several state and federal laws by harvesting email addresses from the contact lists of email accounts associated with Plaintiffs’ LinkedIn accounts and by sending repeated invitations to join LinkedIn to the harvested email addresses". It relates to the fact that LinkedIn not only used the address books of those signing up for accounts to tout for business by sending out an email to that effect, but also sent follow-up email if there was no response.

US district judge Lucy Koh ruled that while users granted permission for LinkedIn to access their contact list it is this 'spamming' that is likely to land the company in court again. The judge outlined the process users were complaining about, explaining that LinkedIn sent an email to connected in users' address books -- albeit with initial permission -- sends the same email a week later if the recipient has not joined LinkedIn, and a third email if another week passes without a signup.

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One of the great things about social networks is that it is possible to connect with people without the need to share email addresses. This means that you can remain "friends" with someone on Facebook, but not get to the point where you're handing out your email address and worrying about checking your inbox. The same is true of LinkedIn, but the difference with this "professional network" is that you're probably connecting with a larger number of people you would rather didn’t have your personal contact details. This comforting level of security was wiped out by Sell Hack.

This free browser extension -- available for Firefox, Chrome and Safari -- could be used to expose the email address associated with any LinkedIn account, regardless of whether you are connected to the person you are, essentially, spying on. Perhaps understandably, this caused a degree of upset and resulted in LinkedIn sending a cease and desist notice to the extension's developers. Sell Hack adds a "Hack In" button to social network pages which, when clicked, reveals the email address used by the account owner to create their page.

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LinkedIn, a popular social site for the business crowd, carries a lot of benefits for customers. There is the opportunity for networking, along with finding work. To that end, like any social network, the company has strived to find ways to enhance its offerings and make things more appealing.

It has not always succeeded, and one such failure is about to be killed off. Intro was an app for iPhone that insinuated itself into the user's email, and was perhaps a bad idea from the start.

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With Android handsets and iPhones taking the lion's share of the smartphone market, Windows Phone is quite often overlooked by most consumers in their purchasing decisions. The popularity, or lack thereof, of devices running Microsoft's mobile OS likely plays an important part but it also detracts folks from getting the smartphone that may be right for them. Ask yourselves how many of your acquaintances have been in this position.

Many do not even take Windows Phone into consideration and the ones that do easily find a couple of reasons to dismiss the platform and jump on the Android or iPhone bandwagon. Yes, Windows Phone may not be the right answer for everyone but it might be for more people than naysayers think. And I have got 10 good reasons why consumers should give Windows Phone a chance.

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It seems that every online company is in a sharing mood at the moment. Facebook has already come clean about the data requests it has received from the US government, Microsoft wants to tell us more and Google is really keen on the idea. The latest company to express concern about the restrictions on reporting about government data requests is LinkedIn.

In a "Letter to the LinkedIn community", Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of LinkedIn, Erika Rottenberg, not only announces the publication of the social network's Transparency Report for H1 2013, but also expresses "great disappointment and frustration" at the limitations on what can be reported. Rottenberg reveals that she has written to the FBI to ask that LinkedIn be permitted to release additional data about requests that have been made.

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With privacy higher than ever on the news agenda, it is not surprising people are starting to wake up to the fact they have happily allowed all kinds of personal information about themselves to appear online. It might be too late to stem the tide, but if you are thinking about reviewing your personal privacy, one place to start might be with the apps added to various social networks.

If this idea appeals, then desktop users should install one of MyPermissions Cleaner for Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari, while iPhone and Android users can go with Online Privacy Shield -- once done, you are ready to start taking action to tighten privacy settings.

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Late yesterday, Canadian manufacturer BlackBerry announced yet another range of updates for the LinkedIn and Twitter apps on BlackBerry 10. The latest iterations are designed to bring the social networking apps on par with their Android, iOS and Windows Phone counterparts and, according to BlackBerry, to "make it easier than ever to stay connected and do more with your social and professional contacts, while on the go".

Twitter is on its third noteworthy update in the past couple of months -- the first one arrived in early-March while the second released weeks later. The latest iteration sports two major improvements, the first of which is the ability to display more content while searching. Users can view photos, relevant profiles and searches as well as tweets and top tweets on the same page.

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization dedicated to protecting the rights of consumers, publishes its report on safety in the digital age. There are some winners and also some major losers this time around in the "Who has your back?" statement -- hint put down your cell phone, step away slowly and nobody gets hurt.

The annual report looks at major technology service providers' commitment to users' rights in the face of government data demands. EFF examines 18 companies' terms of service, privacy policies, advocacy, and courtroom track records and awards up to six gold stars for best practices in categories such as requiring a warrant for content, telling users about government data demands and publishing a transparency report.

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Popular business-oriented social network LinkedIn has unveiled new mobile apps for Android and iOS, touting a "brand new mobile phone experience, completely revamped with the general professional and everyday use case in mind". This comes a day after LinkedIn updated its Windows Phone 8 app, with major new features.

However, unlike the Windows Phone 8 app which offers a similar user experience as before, LinkedIn for Android and iOS sports an overhauled UI (User Interface) that is both more modern as well as better looking. Gone are the darker colors of before as lighter ones take their place instead.

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If you are an avid LinkedIn user on Windows Phone 8 then you will certainly appreciate the latest update. The app has introduced significant improvements over its predecessor, ranging from a new live tile size, to speech recognition and expanded language support.

New versions of LinkedIn for Windows Phone 8 don't come often so any major update is likely to be the only one users will see in a while (a minor update for it appeared earlier this week, but without any noticeable new features or changes from the previous version other than, most likely, a couple of bug fixes and general performance enhancements). So what delights does LinkedIn 1.5 have to offer us? Let's take a look at the changes.

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When I signed onto group chat this morning, my colleagues bantered about problems accessing LinkedIn. They couldn't. I navigated to the site easily enough, but got this message when trying to log in: "An Error occurred during authorization, please try again later". The social network's Twitter feed confirms there are problems, but information is contradictory.

About two hours ago: "We're aware that the site is currently down, and our team is working on it right now. Stay tuned". An hour later: "The issues you may have experienced with our site earlier have been cleared. Thanks for your patience". But they weren't fixed. At 9:21 am EDT: "Our site is currently experiencing some issues. Our team is continuing their work on this. Stay tuned".

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BlackBerry Z10 owners rejoice! Updated LinkedIn and Twitter apps for BB 10 are now available, touting new features and improvements over previous iterations. The update promises to improve the social experience on BlackBerry's latest mobile operating system with "an enhanced tweeting experience and helpful business tools", according to the Canadian device maker.

Let's take them one by one. The LinkedIn app, which has seen the least number of improvements and new features of the two, now allows users to view LinkedIn profiles in full screen mode, search, view and save recommended jobs, chat with connections through LinkedIn Messages and filter news by industries through LinkedIn Today.

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