LinkedIn query

S

Sim Two

Registered User
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I recently received an email from LinkedIn providing network updates from people I know or those they think I should be linked to.

However, they also provided a list of 10 or so people, most of whom I know, that I might want to be linked to.

Some of these people are contacts that I forwarded an email to at some time in the past but others are individuals that I have never emailed but would have been copies in earlier email exchanges on the matter (i.e they would hav been previously copied on an email which subsequently came to me).

How does LinkedIn find this information?

Sim
 
Hi,
From what I can tell of my experience with LinkedIn, if anyone looks at your profile then they may be flagged as someone you may know. Likewise if you look at someone's profile then you may be listed as someone they may know.
So LinkedIn is not anonymous for instance if you want to be a little nosey and take a peek at someones profile then your profile does seem to be announced in the "someone you may know category" to them at a later stage.
 
I also got an LinkedIn email recently using the name of someone that I knew. As soon as I clicked on it a Trojan Horse pop up hit my screen.
 
Graftgirl

I'd be pretty certain that I wouldn't have looked at some of the individual profiles - I don't spend much time on LinkedIn.

Sim
 
When you set up your account, you may have given LinkedIn access to your email account, so that it can search your contacts - If you do this, it could search all your emails I imagine and see all the senders and recipients of all your emails.
 
IsleOfMan said:
I also got an LinkedIn email recently using the name of someone that I knew. As soon as I clicked on it a Trojan Horse pop up hit my screen.
Click to expand...
Most likely this was spam and not a genuine LinkedIn email or your PC was already infected.
 
Most likely someone you sent an email to decided to upload their address book or contact list...
 
The chances are the 10 suggested people are linked to some of your existing links.
 
I believe they just look at items in your profile that are common with others (i.e. school, workplace, hometown, etc...). However, if you gave them access to your contact list to build your initial list of linkedin contacts, they may be pulling information from that as well...
 
Sim Two said:
Graftgirl

I'd be pretty certain that I wouldn't have looked at some of the individual profiles - I don't spend much time on LinkedIn.

Sim
Click to expand...

Yes but they may have looked at your profile and then these profiles are flagged to you at a later stage as "People you may know". I am not 100% sure that this is how it works but from my own experience that is how I think this happens on LinkedIn..
 
There are linked in phishing emails going around. I recently got one from someone I know to be a problem with regard to getting viruses - a toxic contact if you will.

I don't gen emails from linked in for new contacts, just a notification that I have a request in my linked in inbox on the actual site.
 
ClubMan said:
Most likely this was spam and not a genuine LinkedIn email or your PC was already infected.
Click to expand...

It was spam. I got one of those.

It was very well done, with all headers spoofed - exactly like a linked-in email.
The only way to know is that the link given (to the trojan) looked a trifle dodgy.

Now I just delete all linked in emails without even opening them.
 
Interesting stuff here.

From all of the responses and suggestions received so far, the possibility of LinkedIn uploading my address book looks the most likely explanation.

This is based on the following -

Mr X (one of the 10) is a Recruitment Specialist in an engineering company - he shares the same name as an individual that I have been in email contact in the recent past. The Mr X on LinkedIn is definitely not the one I know – different area of work and photo on LinkedIn is not my Mr X.

Another of the 10 is an individual in a multi-national corporation that I emailed once looking for sponsorship for a Club that I’m involved in – I got her email address from the website of the organisation concerned rather than making contact through LinkedIn. I have no reason to believe that she would know any of the others.

In response to the various queries
  • Did I let LinkedIn upload my address book? Don’t think I did but couldn’t be certain what the terms and conditions contained when I signed up.
  • The 10 people are linked to my existing links. This would certainly apply to 1 or possibly 2 but not the rest.
  • People you may know emails: I get these from time-to-time when some individual registers or updates their details and one of their fields matches one of mine. The list of 10 was suggested at the bottom of one of these emails flagged “How about these people” but were not in the “People you may know” category.
 
I think it also suggests people, you might know with similar names to your links, or people you look up. Because its suggested to me people who are the same name, in the same industry but in a completely different country, usually USA. One person I know seems to use it to push marketing info to his contacts. As he works in marketing I think he sees this as self promotion, but I see it as spam. I'm thinking of disconnecting from it as it seems too noisy, with the amount of emails it generates.
 
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