A US lawsuit filed on behalf of LinkedIn Premium users accuses the social media platform of sharing their private messages with other companies to train artificial intelligence (AI) models.
It alleges that in August last year, the world’s largest professional social networking website “quietly” introduced a privacy setting, automatically opting users in to a programme that allowed third parties to use their personal data to train AI.
It also accuses the Microsoft-owned company of concealing its actions a month later by changing its privacy policy to say user information could be disclosed for AI training purposes.
A LinkedIn spokesperson told BBC News that “these are false claims with no merit”.
The filing also said LinkedIn changed its ‘frequently asked questions’ section to say that users could choose not to share data for AI purposes but that doing so would not affect training that had already taken place.
“LinkedIn’s actions… indicate a pattern of attempting to cover its tracks,” the lawsuit said.
“This behaviour suggests that LinkedIn was fully aware that it had violated its contractual promises and privacy standards and aimed to minimise public scrutiny”.
The lawsuit was filed in a California federal court on behalf of a LinkedIn Premium user and “all others” in a similar situation.
It seeks $1,000 (£812) per user for alleged violations of the US federal Stored Communications Act as well as an unspecified amount for breach of contract and California’s unfair competition law.
According to an email LinkedIn sent to its users last year, it has not enabled user data sharing for AI purposes in the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland.
LinkedIn has more than one billion users around the world, with almost a quarter of them in the US.
In 2023, the company attracted $1.7bn in revenue from premium subscriptions.
It has also said that the number of premium subscribers has been growing rapidly as it continues to add more AI features.
Additional reporting by Lily Jamali