• PC World, Friday, August 12, 2011 10 AM

LinkedIn's privacy changes raised a storm. Columnist John Mello wrote early on Thursday morning that the new changes in LinkedIn's privacy policy let it use its members' names and photos in third-party advertising that appears on the social network. He quotes the company's own words: "LinkedIn may sometimes pair an advertiser's message with social content from LinkedIn's network in order to make the ad more relevant."

Mello said it also makes it easier for the advertisers to exploit the reputations of the service's members to sell products those members may not endorse. "Should a feature that so brazenly violates the privacy of LinkedIn members be opt-out?," he quotes Paul Ducklin at the Sophos Naked Security.

"Crudely put, LinkedIn will mine your usage habits to determine what products and services you're interested in, and then use your name and photo in what amounts to an endorsement for those products and services when they're advertised to other users," he wrote.

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