LinkedIn hit with lawsuit alleging private messages were used to train AI models

LinkedIn is facing a class-action lawsuit over allegations of using private messages to train its AI model.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, has accused the Microsoft-owned professional networking site of "unlawfully disclosing its Premium customers’ private messages to third parties" and "concealing" its practices by "stealthily altering its privacy policies and statements." A key part of the lawsuit accused LinkedIn of disclosing private InMail messages to third parties to train its model.

A spokesperson for LinkedIn said, "we are not using member messages to train models as alleged in the complaint."

The issue of attaining training data for AI models is a contentious one, and LinkedIn is not the first company to be accused of misconduct. Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI have all faced lawsuits on behalf of users for using their personal data without prior knowledge or consent.

The lawsuit against LinkedIn is on behalf of paying LinkedIn Premium users who ostensibly pay for enhanced privacy features. The allegations center on a privacy setting introduced in August 2024 that enabled LinkedIn users to opt out of sharing their personal data to train its AI models, but the opt-in setting was toggled on by default.

A month later, LinkedIn updated its privacy policy to say the company can use user data to train its models and that data might be shared with third parties. The lawsuit accuses LinkedIn of violating data privacy laws and breach of contract by training on user data, including InMail messages without knowledge or consent and "cover[ing] its tracks" by retroactively changing its privacy policy.

On behalf of LinkedIn Premium users, the lawsuit is seeking damages of $1,000 per plaintiff.