To settle a class-action lawsuit accusing it of sending too many unsolicited emails to users, social network LinkedIn has agreed to pay $13 million to users.
LinkedIn’s “add connections” feature was the issue of the lawsuit, a feature that lets users import their personal contacts into the social network.
The feature where the users get to see the message “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn”, is first sent by the user. However if the person to which the message is sent does not reply within a specified time, LinkedIn followed them up with two further ones again inviting them to join the site.
What led to the law suit was that while the emails are annoying for the recipients, it is actually the “senders” or the users names that LinkedIn was using to send the emails.
The law suit contended with two aspects against LinkedIn. The first was that while the users sending the invitations may have given permission for the initial mail to be sent out, they did not give explicit consent for the following two messages and secondly the senders also did not give consent to LinkedIn to use their names for the following two mails.
“Despite the appearance of the endorsement emails, the users do not compose the message, they do not consent to LinkedIn sending multiple messages on their behalf, and they are not compensated for the use of their name or likeness in the advertising or promotion of LinkedIn,” the lawsuit complaint stated.
As a result of the class-action, the $13 million settlement is filtering down to LinkedIn users in the US and the social website on Monday notified eligible users that they could have a claim through emails.
According to an open letter from the lawyers leading the class action suit, the amount users will receive has not yet been set. However sources said that the claims to be paid could be as low as $10 or even lower.
“If the number of approved claims results in a payment amount of less than $10 per person, LinkedIn will pay an additional amount up to $750,000 into the fund”, the lawyers added.
The “add connections” feature is one of the most infamous features of LinkedIn. The statement associated with the feature “I’d like to add you to my professional network” has become a recognized and widely mocked phrase.
In September, New York based designer Frank Chimero realised that the line works as a universal punchline to New Yorker-style editorial cartoons.
In their statement however LinkedIn however said that the lawsuit made “a number of false allegations” but considering the popular sentiment, had decided to settle the matter.
“Based on its review of LinkedIn’s product, the court agreed that these allegations were false and found that LinkedIn’s members gave permission to share their email contacts with LinkedIn and to send invitations to connect on LinkedIn. Because the court also suggested that we could be more clear about the fact that we send reminder emails about pending invitations from LinkedIn members, we have made changes to our product and Privacy Policy,” said the statement from LinkedIn.
(Source:www.theguardian.com)
LinkedIn’s “add connections” feature was the issue of the lawsuit, a feature that lets users import their personal contacts into the social network.
The feature where the users get to see the message “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn”, is first sent by the user. However if the person to which the message is sent does not reply within a specified time, LinkedIn followed them up with two further ones again inviting them to join the site.
What led to the law suit was that while the emails are annoying for the recipients, it is actually the “senders” or the users names that LinkedIn was using to send the emails.
The law suit contended with two aspects against LinkedIn. The first was that while the users sending the invitations may have given permission for the initial mail to be sent out, they did not give explicit consent for the following two messages and secondly the senders also did not give consent to LinkedIn to use their names for the following two mails.
“Despite the appearance of the endorsement emails, the users do not compose the message, they do not consent to LinkedIn sending multiple messages on their behalf, and they are not compensated for the use of their name or likeness in the advertising or promotion of LinkedIn,” the lawsuit complaint stated.
As a result of the class-action, the $13 million settlement is filtering down to LinkedIn users in the US and the social website on Monday notified eligible users that they could have a claim through emails.
According to an open letter from the lawyers leading the class action suit, the amount users will receive has not yet been set. However sources said that the claims to be paid could be as low as $10 or even lower.
“If the number of approved claims results in a payment amount of less than $10 per person, LinkedIn will pay an additional amount up to $750,000 into the fund”, the lawyers added.
The “add connections” feature is one of the most infamous features of LinkedIn. The statement associated with the feature “I’d like to add you to my professional network” has become a recognized and widely mocked phrase.
In September, New York based designer Frank Chimero realised that the line works as a universal punchline to New Yorker-style editorial cartoons.
In their statement however LinkedIn however said that the lawsuit made “a number of false allegations” but considering the popular sentiment, had decided to settle the matter.
“Based on its review of LinkedIn’s product, the court agreed that these allegations were false and found that LinkedIn’s members gave permission to share their email contacts with LinkedIn and to send invitations to connect on LinkedIn. Because the court also suggested that we could be more clear about the fact that we send reminder emails about pending invitations from LinkedIn members, we have made changes to our product and Privacy Policy,” said the statement from LinkedIn.
(Source:www.theguardian.com)
