LinkedIn plans to share user data with Microsoft and its affiliates for AI training. Framed as “legitimate interest”, it won’t ask for your permission—instead you’ll have to opt out before the deadline.
Microsoft has made major investments in ChatGPT’s creator OpenAI, and as we know, the more data we feed a Large Language Model (LLM) the more useful answers the AI chatbot can provide. This explains why LinkedIn wants your data, but not how it went about it.
The use of personal data for AI improvements and product personalization always raises privacy concerns and we would expect a much lower participation rate if users had to sign up for it. The problem in this case is that you were already opted-in by default and your data will be used up to the point where you opt out.'
Who is affected and how?
There are some contradicting statements going around about in which countries the new
update to LinkedIn terms will apply. The official statement says members in the EU, EEA, Switzerland, Canada, and Hong Kong have until November 3, 2025, to opt out. (EEA is the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway).
If you thought living in Europe, Canada, or Hong Kong meant you were protected from having LinkedIn scrape your posts to train its AI, think again. You have a week to opt out before the Microsoft subsidiary assumes you're fine with it.
LinkedIn
announced changes to its data use terms several weeks ago, noting that as of November 3 it would start sucking up data from "members in the EU, EEA, Switzerland, Canada, and Hong Kong" to train AI models. While not mentioned by name in the notice, scrolling down the update page to the section on the UK indicates that
previous exceptions which rendered Blighty safe from LinkedIn scraping are being eliminated too.
Reportedly, a quarter of the over 1 billion LinkedIn users are in the US, so they can provide a lot of valuable data. In the terms update, users in the US are included in the part where it says:
“Starting November 3, 2025, we will share additional data about members in your region with our Affiliate Microsoft so that the Microsoft family of companies can show you more personalized and relevant ads. This data may include your LinkedIn profile data, feed activity data, and ad engagement data; it does not include any data that your settings you do not allow LinkedIn to use for ad purposes.” -
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