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Internet Users' Second-Party Exposure
Detailed Analysis - 6: LinkedIn

Version of 24 December 2010

Roger Clarke **

© Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, 2010

This document is at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/IU-SPE-A6-LinkedIn.html

Detailed Analysis

The Terms grant LinkedIn a licence in relation to all content that users "provide, directly or indirectly to LinkedIn, including but not limited to any user generated content, ideas, concepts, techniques or data". The licence purports to extend far beyond the rights that are recognised by copyright law, including to "prepare derivative works of, improve, distribute, publish, ... use and commercialize, in any way now known or in the future discovered".

The licence also purports to permit LinkedIn to "retain" all data. (A separate clause says that the user "may request ... deletion [of the information you provide LinkedIn under this Agreement]"; but the Agreement does not bind LinkedIn to comply with the request).

The Terms can be unilaterally amended, without notice, and with immediate effect.

Changes to Terms can apply to all content, including content submitted under earlier Terms; and hence the assurances that exist can be withdrawn at any time, without notice.

Users are at risk of LinkedIn taking advantage of users' content under the following circumstances:

• LinkedIn uses its existing, comprehensive rights in a manner that is harmful to the user
• All of the following occur:
• LinkedIn exercises its right to unilaterally change the Terms, in order to create additional rights to use users' content; and
• users overlook the change made. This is highly likely because:
  • LinkedIn can make the change by posting it anywhere on the site
  • detecting that a change has been made requires continual comparison of the dates of the current copies of the documents against archived copies of the dates of the old documents
  • detecting what changes have been made requires word-by-word comparison against archived copies of the old documents that the user has to have earlier downloaded and kept in a safe place where they can find them again; and
• LinkedIn exercises its new rights in a manner that is harmful to the user

Extracts from the Terms of Service

Terms at

http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=user_agreement, mirror at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/IU-SPE-T-LinkedIn-01.html, Last revised on March 24, 2010

http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=privacy_policy, mirror at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/IU-SPE-T-LinkedIn-02.html, Last revised on March 24, 2010

http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=copyright_policy, mirror at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/IU-SPE-T-LinkedIn-03.html, Last revised on March 24, 2010

Terms of 13 December 2010, mirror downloaded 14 January 2011

2B. License and warranty for your submissions to LinkedIn.

You ... may request its deletion at any time, unless you have shared information or content with others and they have not deleted it, or it was copied or stored by other users. Additionally, you grant LinkedIn a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual, unlimited, assignable, sublicenseable, fully paid up and royalty-free right to us to copy, prepare derivative works of, improve, distribute, publish, remove, retain, add, process, analyze, use and commercialize, in any way now known or in the future discovered, any information you provide, directly or indirectly to LinkedIn, including but not limited to any user generated content, ideas, concepts, techniques or data to the services, you submit to LinkedIn, without any further consent, notice and/or compensation to you or to any third parties.

2H. Notifications and Service Messages.

For purposes of service messages and notices about the Services to you, notice shall consist of an email from LinkedIn to an email address associated with your account, even if we have other contact information. You also agree that LinkedIn may communicate with you through your LinkedIn account or through other means including email, mobile number, telephone, or delivery services including the US Postal Service about your LinkedIn account or services associated with LinkedIn. You acknowledge and agree that we shall have no liability associated with or arising from your failure to do so maintain [sic] accurate contact or other information, including, but not limited to, your failure to receive critical information about the Service.

9E. Amendments to this Agreement.

We reserve the right to modify, supplement or replace the terms of the Agreement, effective upon posting at www.linkedin.com or notifying you otherwise. If you do not want to agree to changes to the Agreement, you can terminate the Agreement at any time per Section 7 (Termination).

Author Affiliations

Roger Clarke is Principal of Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, Canberra. He is also a Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre at the University of N.S.W., and a Visiting Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the Australian National University.

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The content and infrastructure for these community service pages are provided by Roger Clarke through his consultancy company, Xamax. From the site's beginnings in August 1994 until February 2009, the infrastructure was provided by the Australian National University. During that time, the site accumulated close to 30 million hits. It passed 65 million in early 2021. Sponsored by the Gallery, Bunhybee Grasslands, the extended Clarke Family, Knights of the Spatchcock and their drummer

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd ACN: 002 360 456 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA Tel: +61 2 6288 6916

Created: 9 December 2010 - Last Amended: 24 December 2010 by Roger Clarke - Site Last Verified: 15 February 2009
This document is at www.rogerclarke.com/EC/IU-SPE-A6-LinkedIn.html
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