Social Media, Ink - Latest Comments

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

SGallie — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:17:20 -0000

I agree - I see 2 names of outlier family I haven't googled. But i'm sure at least 1 has googled me. this because she also followed me on Twitter several years ago until she discovered a follow notification was sent to me. she quickly closed out her account. I discovered this because I was going to follow her...but her account was no longer active. folks can pretty much determine who's searching for you. frankly...i've had so many issues w/this family that i expect them to search for me from time to time.

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

hockeybik — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 19:20:19 -0000

@Ian Harris - Your suggestion is logical and probably responsible for some PYMK hits but I don't buy it for all of them - just way too many happen.

I joined this discussion over a year ago and the stories are obviously numerous and they are creepy as one put it. Does anyone know if LI has been called on this by anyone with more power than us? Are they violating their agreements with users at all - anyone read the fine print. How are they really mining this information. I understand that we as users are LinkedIn's product - we are what they have to sell to advertisers. But, don't you think we should know how they get our data?

Any comments?

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

littlelegs — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 15:14:37 -0000

I think it must be people who have at one time viewed your profile. Today the stepmother of a guy I dated over 6 years ago was suggested as a PYMK. I have no connection with her on any other network so there's no other way they would know I knew her. Gave me the creeps though!

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

steve — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 14:16:18 -0000

LOL! I did the same thing, and now I am worried (well, that may be a bit strong) that a high school girlfriend will see it and think I am "stalking" her. I thought the anonymous profile viewing was supposed to take care of this, but I guess not. It's not like I do it regularly, but if it shows up, I don't want to be labeled "creepy". No more profile viewing if it's someone like that; perhaps no more profile viewing at all.

I get that I'm not anonymous, but this seems a bit over the top, especially when I have already enabled anonymous profile viewing, which should indicate I don't *want* people to know when I view their profile.

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

dev — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 06:41:34 -0000

i had applied for a job some time back. all of a sudden i see a lot of people from the organisation in my PYMK list. only 2 conclusions are possible, linkedin knows that i applied for the job and is showing people from there on my pymk or the people are checking out my linkedin profile as part of their recruitment processes. in my opinion the possibilities for the former conclusion to be correct are slim. so, i can safely assume the second one to be true.

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

Ian Harris — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 07:37:36 -0000

I think the answer may be that some of these people looked at your profile. There's a lot of folk in the comments here saying "There's no way LinkedIn could have known about this person's connection to me!" If that's true, perhaps a logical guess is that these people checked out your profile and LinkedIn noticed?

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

Beaupeep — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 11:25:58 -0000

I just added my gmail contacts and got a message that said Linked In found 41 people that I know. And in that list were probably 30 people from India that I most certainly DO NOT know. I find that odd.....

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

Howard Beale — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 23:21:30 -0000

Recently googled a few people I hadn't seen or had in any contact with in decades (way before email) and don't particularly care to, but was curious about them for one reason or another. Shortly thereafter, they showed up in my PYMK. Research on how that could have happened led me to this discussion. For whatever good this social medium does for people, I don't like their invasion into private online activity. Mining my Google searches was not part of the deal I signed on for. What else are they looking at or for? I won't associate with such dishonest, sneaky, unethical behavior and have closed my account with them.

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

JJ — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 11:01:18 -0000

I met a guy in a chatroom a few years ago and we emailed each other for a few months. We've never met in person, I never had his cell number. He lives in another state across the country. Through Facebook I found out he got engaged and so in a moment of curiosity I Googled his fiance and his company. I've never emailed her. I don't even know her email address. She doesn't know I exist. He's in real estate, I work in a totally different field. I don't have any possible connection to his company, which is across the country. I was deeply disturbed when I saw that LinkedIn included his fiance and some people from his company in my PYMK list! (But not him, because he doesn't have a LinkedIn account, so no way for LinkedIn to connect me to him that way.) I don't know any people at his job and they certainly have never heard of me. I seriously doubt he told his fiance about me because I was just an email acquaintance, we stopped emailing each other two years before he got engaged, and he's very secretive. My point is, these people don't know that I exist so they've never performed any searches on me. They aren't in any of my contact lists, I've never emailed any of them. The ONLY way LinkedIn could have found out about them or their company is by spying on my Google or Facebook searches.

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

LK — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 08:19:40 -0000

I've been wondering this same thing. In a recent "People You May Know" appeared:
- my college soccer Captain's current girlfriend (he's not on LinkedIn)
- my girlfriend from 3 years ago whom I met on Match
- a woman I met at a 3rd-party conference two years ago
- another girlfriend from a year ago (again a Match connection)
- a spiritual teacher I connected with on Facebook
- my son's former orchestra coordinator (an independent group)
- the mother of a boy I coached in Rec League soccer
- a member of my golf club who lives in Florida
- my son's best friend's father

I've sent or received emails with all of them except the first. The connection to Match is obvious - people I've corresponded with on that site show up regularly. But the email connection is very disturbing: how would they have such a connection, and why is it legal?

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

Yuropolis — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 12:10:03 -0000

This is nuts. A drinking buddy of mine from Siberia popped up. Fucking Siberia! I ran across him a few times (twice). How the hell? I wasn't connected with him in anyway (I did have his fathers email though) in a non-active account I hadn't touched from my college days and I dont use for linkedin. Whatever linkedin is doing...they need to STOP! Whatever they are doing is a serious violation of privacy. Maybe Russian Government will be pissed off that they are on their servers =/.

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

hockeybik — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:18:26 -0000

I'd just settle for them and all the others, G+, FB, etc. to own up to what they are doing and allow users to opt out of it.

It's easy to forget that us as users of these sites are not customers but "products" being sold to the real customers - advertisers.

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

mia — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:15:14 -0000

I am convinced Linkedin spies out their users' devices and/or applications; I have the same experience with the people you may know feature as you describe; and yesterday, all of a sudden 2 email addresses that I never entered in my profile, one strictly for private use only, popped up in my linkedin account. It's disgusting, and I don't understand why this isn't big news. Anybody suing them?

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

Jake — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 16:32:38 -0000

Wow. How can this be happening?? This is some of the best evidence yet about the privacy issues. Let's get some more examples rolling!

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

Saurabh — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 00:37:10 -0000

Thats when I looked up and stumbled across your blog.!

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

Saurabh — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 00:36:42 -0000

I added a few people recently on fb and 2 days later, I get the PYMK suggestion for both of them! This is creepy.. Are they tracking our activities across anything we do online and across other sites? How does that work?

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

DD — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 22:00:24 -0000

I just had a girl that I dated 5 years ago pop up in my PYMK. We never exchanged email addresses, are not connected in any way professionally or personally, are not connected on facebook, but somehow she is front and centre in my PYMK list..! The only link I have to her is her number is in my iphone (which I havent used in years). Unless she is stalking my linkedin profile, this is soo creepy!

Re: Why Social Media is So Damn Hard

Tucker_M — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 18:33:58 -0000

Really enjoyed the article! Especially all of the great graphics

Re: Big Trends in Social Media: Gamification to Visual Content

Pam Lundry — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:23:55 -0000

Really great article! You should seriously consider posting more. You have not only got a way with words, but a unique seat in the middle of customer support!

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

RighteousDude — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 23:18:21 -0000

The answer is yes. When you submit a resume, employers are looking you up on Linkedin. When they do this, you become linked to that company and it's employees. I had the same thing happen with a job I applied for... and there was a people who viewed your profile option and the lady who I sent my application to was listed as having view my profile.

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

RighteousDude — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 23:11:08 -0000

Look! Another Linkedin Company troll. They are everywhere! Aggghhh!

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

RighteousDude — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 23:05:12 -0000

I have experience the exact same thing. I had 3 ex-girlfriends show up as people I may know. I have never searched these people on google nor have I uploaded my contacts list. Here's where it gets spooky. Yes, I do have their names in my outlook contacts. However, they have since married and go by different names. I'm guessing that Linkedin does use your outlook contacts to compare to the member name field and cross reference with the maiden name field. There is no doubt, this is a serious violation of our constitutional right to privacy. Shame on you Linkedin, you bunch of data trolls.

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

RighteousDude — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 22:55:56 -0000

What a bunch of puff! This post was clearly written by a Linkedin company employee.

Re: Does LinkedIn Know Us Better Than We Think?

Joe Casanue — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 12:34:57 -0000

I've never uploaded any contacts, but linkedin suggested someone I dated when I was 16 years old. We have no connection whatsoever, but I may have in a bored moment googled ...

Re: Big Trends in Social Media: Gamification to Visual Content

Shawn Santos — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 16:00:28 -0000

Hi Nick,

Agreed: we're still at the tip of the iceberg. What's interesting to note is how quickly social media trends evolve (we weren't talking about some of these issues--well, at least we weren't calling them trends--even 8 months ago)!

You've brought up an interesting point regarding how the design of products and services will be influenced by social. I think there's at least one distinction in how this takes place: on one side you have customer "co‐creation," the other you have "social analytics."

On the co-creation side, creative companies can involve social audiences directly as a type of social "focus group" during various stages of innovation, or, for more direct participation, offer proactive feedback mechanisms (like Dell's Ideastorm, or MyStarbucksIdea… I realize I probably need some more current examples here… feedback encouraged!).

The more recent (and very different) form of customer-influenced product development, is to listen to the customers' social domain by analyzing information from diverse social channels. Here, modern approaches to data mining and content analysis have expedited the coding and analysis of data (and we've seen plenty of vendors pop up in this space to sort it all out). Bartl and Ivanovic (2010) present a good case study of the application of social analytics at Nivea, where the analysis of social content provided them with access to novel customer insights which resulted in the successful launch of a new line of cosmetic products.

I'd love to hear of other shining examples of socially-influenced product development!

Thanks for commenting.

Shawn