By ZiDCard

Without attracting too much publicity, LinkedIn has updated their privacy conditions. Without any action from your side, LinkedIn is now permitted to use your name and picture in any of their advertisements.

Is this the dawn of a new LinkedIn?

After deciding to increase its revenue by providing an advertising platform to companies looking for increased exposure, LinkedIn has obviously decided that economic sense now prevails over ideals. The latest attempt to increase revenue comes in the form of recruitment packages they are now selling to companies. This new direction has many LinkedIn users asking the question ‘What is coming next?’ Or more importantly – What else will they do with our information we publish on our profiles?

A lot of people are complaining about the new updates of LinkedIn. While in the midst of change you can still read their original ideals on their ‘Learning Center’ page: “LinkedIn connects you to your trusted contacts and helps you exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals.” Was this the reason you initially decided to join LinkedIn? To be connected ‘online’ to your peers? To read about interesting topics related to your professional experiences? Or to be exposed to products and services you don’t really want.

This was before considering the companies (usually located on the other side of the world) began offering services or trainings that have no relevance to you or your professional career. Maybe you are one of those very lucky individuals who have been harassed by recruiters which found your profile through “keywords” and began promoting very interesting jobs … 5,000 km away from your current location!

Finally, you thought it would be a good idea to join some groups to increase the size of your network, or share your opinion on interesting professional debates. Do you have access to such relevant information? Or have you found now most of the groups are dedicated to job advertisements, or mobile phone offers? There is nothing bad about this … if this was what you were expecting!

By introducing profitable services, is LinkedIn forgetting its primary activity (of providing individuals the ability to link with peers) and playing the same game as Facebook?
Don’t forget if you don’t accept that your name, image and identity can be used to promote Linkedin products here are some simple actions to follow:

1. Place the cursor on your name at the top right corner of the screen. From the small drop down menu that appears, select “settings”
2. Click “Account” on the left/bottom
3. In the column next to Account, select the option “Manage Social Advertising”
4. Un-tick the box “LinkedIn may use my name and photo in social advertising”
5. Save

How to inform your connections? Simple: Via Inbox>Compose message in LinkedIn, you can forward this link to 50 connections at once.