LinkedIn is making headlines following a mistake that “damaged” the reputation of numerous users. The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), reported numerous complaints concerning this blunder in a yearly report.

Although the DPC doesn’t explicitly mention LinkedIn, publications like the Telegraph aren’t having trouble connecting the dots.

The LinkedIn feature in question is called “Mentioned in the News”. The feature notifies a user’s connections anytime they (the user) appear in the media.

At least, that is how it is supposed to work.

In the DPC report two users detailed their experiences, claiming that the feature would make connections between them and someone of the same name. The report also noted that LinkedIn didn’t resolve complaints made by two users.

In one complaint, a user was mentioned in a news article about a person with the same name detailing their private life and unsuccessful career.

LinkedIn sent out the article to the users’ friends and connections. The complainant said the article had “been detrimental to their professional standing and had resulted in the loss of contracts for their business”.

Telegraph

The DPC feels that this raises concerns in regards to data protection.

“primarily the lawfulness, fairness and accuracy of the personal data processing”.

This isn’t LinkedIn’s first offence with the DPC. Last year the DPC scolded LinkedIn for using 18 million non member emails for Facebook ad targeting.

LinkedIn announced Thursday that they would be putting the feature on pause, for European users only. They plan on reassessing the feature as they receive more feedback from users.

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