Frozen out by Linking In?

Frozen out by Linking In?


A class-action lawsuit has been brought in the US against social network LinkedIn. The claimants allege that a premium search feature on LinkedIn, “Reference Search”, in which an applicant’s co-workers from their work history are identified and may be approached, has prevented them getting jobs.

On the website, Reference Search is described as locating "people in your network who can provide reliable feedback about a job candidate or business  prospect".

"You’ll see a list of people who have worked at the same company during the same time period as the member you’d like to learn more about".

The claimants’ lawsuit alleges that "LinkedIn members are not notified by LinkedIn (or anyone else) when potential employers run a Reference Report on them".

"Indeed the only parties that have information concerning the running of a Reference Report in a LinkedIn member are LinkedIn and [the] individual or entity that pulls the Reference Report."

The claimants further allege, "As such, any potential employer can anonymously dig into the employment history of any LinkedIn member, and make hiring and firing decisions based upon the information they gather, without the knowledge of the member, and without any safeguards in place as to the accuracy of the information that the potential employer has obtained."

"Such secrecy in dealing in consumer information directly contradicts the express purposes of the FCRA, which was enacted to promote accuracy, fairness and the privacy of personal information assembled by credit reporting agencies."

The claimants’ representative, James L Davidson, told the New York Times "You may never know you did not get the job based on one of these so-called references."

However, Joseph Roualdes, spokesman for LinkedIn, told the paper the lawsuit is without merit and that LinkedIn is serious about users’ privacy. He explained:

"A reference search, which is only available to premium account holders, simply lets a searcher locate people in their network who have worked at the same company during the same time period as a member they would like to learn more about. A reference search does not reveal any of that member’s non-public information."