LinkedIn suspends collecting Hong Kong users’ data for GenAI: privacy watchdog
Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data earlier raised concerns about the social media platform’s default opt-in use of the data
Professional networking platform LinkedIn has suspended collecting Hong Kong users’ data for its generative artificial intelligence (AI) model after the city’s privacy watchdog raised concerns about the practice by the Microsoft-owned site.
The Office for the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) said on Tuesday that LinkedIn had responded to its inquiries over a default opt-in setting for Hong Kong users’ data to be gathered for purposes such as training AI models “used for content generation”.
“The PCPD received a response from LinkedIn [on Monday] confirming that it has paused any use of Hong Kong users’ personal data for such purposes as of October 11, 2024, while the PCPD’s concerns are being addressed,” a spokesman said.
The social media platform told the Post earlier this month that it had started to inform users of the new feature through multiple channels. It remained unclear when LinkedIn had introduced its new feature.
LinkedIn cited a blog post by its senior vice-president and general counsel Blake Lawit on September 18 stating that the company had added language to clarify how the company would use users’ information to develop the products and services of LinkedIn and its affiliates, which included “training AI models used for content generation (generative AI)”.
Users would have to manually opt out of providing their information to LinkedIn under the policy mentioned in Lawit’s post.
The PCPD earlier advised that Hong Kong users could visit the “Data Privacy” page of their LinkedIn account settings, and then select “Data for Generative AI Improvement” to find the relevant switch to revoke the relevant permission.
