Microsoft's LinkedIn Faces Lawsuit Over Alleged Disclosure of Customer Information for AI Training
- tech360.tv
- Jan 23, 2025
- 2 min read
Microsoft-owned LinkedIn is facing legal action from Premium customers who claim that the professional networking platform shared their private messages with third parties without consent to train artificial intelligence models.
In a proposed class action lawsuit filed on Tuesday night on behalf of millions of LinkedIn Premium users, it was revealed that LinkedIn introduced a privacy setting in August allowing users to control the sharing of their personal data. Subsequently, the platform updated its privacy policy in September to disclose that data could be utilised for AI training purposes, even if users opted out after the fact.
The lawsuit alleges that LinkedIn's actions were an attempt to conceal its breach of customer privacy and its commitment to using personal data solely for platform enhancement. The complaint suggests that the platform sought to avoid public scrutiny and legal repercussions by making these changes discreetly.
Filed in the federal court in San Jose, California, the lawsuit represents LinkedIn Premium customers who exchanged InMail messages and had their private information shared with third parties for AI training before the policy update in September. The legal action seeks damages for breach of contract, violations of California's unfair competition law, and $1,000 per affected individual for breaches of the federal Stored Communications Act.
Responding to the allegations, LinkedIn issued a statement dismissing the claims as baseless. The plaintiffs' lawyer refrained from providing immediate additional comments on the matter.
The lawsuit was filed shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a collaboration involving Microsoft-backed OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank to establish AI infrastructure in the United States, with a potential investment of up to $500 billion.
The case, known as De La Torre v. LinkedIn Corp, is currently before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California under case number 25-00709.
Microsoft's LinkedIn faces lawsuit over alleged disclosure of customer information for AI training
Premium customers claim private messages were shared without consent
Lawsuit seeks damages for breach of contract and privacy violations
Source: REUTERS
