

What LinkedIn Could Learn From OKCupid and Others  - wretched
http://iamvictorio.us/post/11862780898/what-linked-could-learn-from-okcupid

======
redwood
Something Linkedin ought to be taken to task for (Which they continue to get
away with) -- phishing:

Linkedin will show you a login-like screen with your email address pre-
populated and a password prompt. Two dangerous things can happen: 1) a user
can absent-mindedly assume they're at their email login page and type in their
email password (less likely) 2) a user can absent-mindedly assume that this is
the Linkedin login page and type in their Linkedin password.

The problem with (1) (and 2 if your email password is the same as your
linkedin password) is that you've just given Linkedin access to your email
contact list. Then Linkedin can shoot an email to all your contacts letting
them know you're on Linkedin / etc.

To me this is a form of phishing that countless less-tech-savvy folks are
getting caught up in and should not be OKAY in the industry.

~~~
Aloisius
I'm almost certain LinkedIn doesn't try to use your username/password you use
for the site to access your email. Triggering millions of password failures on
gmail/yahoo/etc. is not something that they would risk.

During signup, if you are on one of the major webmail services, it will
explicitly ask you to authorize yourself on them so it can get your contacts
however.

Having worked there and specifically as product manager for the Who Viewed My
Profile portion, I can tell you that they take privacy _very_ seriously.

~~~
redwood
No it explicitly asks if you'd like Linkedin to search your email contacts by
filling out the email address and password fields below. It pre-populates the
email address from your linkedin email login address. Thus without reading
what the fields are for, it's very easy to assume you've simply been logged
out of Linkedin and need to re-log-in. Upon doing so Linkedin will try one
time to login to your email (Gmail and other web email clients do this too --
to grab contacts from older email accounts but they don't use this phishing-
style approach). If your email password happens to be your Linkedin password,
Linkedin will have access to your email contacts without you realizing it. And
more embarrassing: Linkedin may send an email to your contacts mentioning you
(they used to do this, maybe not as much anymore). Don't you remember getting
all those Linkedin invite emails from your 'friends'? how do you think those
got sent? Do you really think your friends intentionally typed in your email
address so Linkedin could spam you?

------
saturdaysaint
Notifying users when their profile is viewed is crazy for anything other than
a dating site, where these notifications simulate the real life mating ritual
of coyly expressing interest in someone. I'm not a huge privacy freak, but I
don't want _anyone_ on any other network to know I've viewed their profile
unless I take a specific action or opt in.

Likewise, encouraging "random friends" would degrade the value of LinkedIn's
network. Part of its current value is that your "connections" presumably have
a real link (work history or friendship) with all of their "connections" and
can potentially make a worthwhile recommendation or introduction. This goes
away if randomness is introduced.

Dating sites are barely social networks - they exist to facilitate quick one-
on-one interactions - so social networks should copy their features with
extreme caution.

~~~
ticks
Yep. I never click on website profiles when I know that the person can see the
visits. The good thing about LinkedIn is you can turn that off, but even then,
I notice it adds the person to the suggested users list after a month or so (I
wonder if it adds me to their suggested list?).

There's lots of reasons why I don't want people to know. Like for example, a
friend works at company x, so every so often I look at other employee profiles
at company x to see if he joined LinkedIn (and is therefore in their
connections).

Just harmless stuff like that, which might look sinister to someone who
doesn't know the context.

~~~
pspeter3
With my experience, LinkedIn will say that you are an anonymous user or give
me a list of 15 people to guess who you are. I also don't think the people
recommendations algorithm includes whose profile you visit.

~~~
travem
with a paid account the information is a lot more detailed and definitely
identifies specific people.

~~~
pspeter3
I have a paid account. It only identifies specific people if those people
allow that.

------
law
I only just started using LinkedIn. One of the major problems I've always had
with the service was the fact that it would notify you that someone from some
area had viewed your profile. This is a major intrusion into the seclusion of
my visitors' browsing activities for several reasons, but most of all because
you have no control over what might be inferred by this view.

I think this is an alarming trend on social networking sites. As saturdaysaint
already pointed out, this is okay for dating web sites, because the point of
them is to encourage pairings between members. Social networks, like facebook,
and professional networks, like LinkedIn, have grown to the point where they
are virtual address books containing more than just information about your
contacts, but up to date information about the activities and interests that
they choose to disclose.

Product management teams need to tread carefully when introducing features
that go against the grain of real-life interaction. To me, page view
notifications are the virtual equivalent of a little voice alerting you
whenever someone has mentioned your name in conversation. Absent of context,
what could you rationally infer from this notification? Context is key, and
without delivering that, the notice is at best worthless and at worst
dangerous.

~~~
gaius
You can switch this off in the preferences.

~~~
law
Ah, thank you, I wasn't even aware. It nevertheless should be something that's
an opt-in feature, rather than an opt-out annoyance.

------
pkamb
My LinkedIn rant:

A year ago LinkedIn released the "Publications" section for your profile:
[http://blog.linkedin.com/2010/10/18/linkedin-profile-
section...](http://blog.linkedin.com/2010/10/18/linkedin-profile-sections/)

Now you can list your academic papers on your profile, awesome. The problem
being that YOU are listed in the "first author" position on any paper you
submit. Author-order being very important, this is a _major_ issue that should
have been caught in the spec stage. It hasn't been fixed in over a year.

