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LinkedIn is illegally searching your computer

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Why This Matters

This revelation exposes LinkedIn's covert and illegal practice of scanning users' computers for sensitive information, raising serious privacy and legal concerns. It highlights the need for stricter regulation and oversight of corporate data collection practices to protect user rights and prevent misuse. Consumers and the tech industry must prioritize transparency and accountability to rebuild trust in digital platforms.

Key Takeaways

LinkedIn Is Illegally Searching Your Computer

Microsoft is running one of the largest corporate espionage operations in modern history.

Every time any of LinkedIn’s one billion users visits linkedin.com, hidden code searches their computer for installed software, collects the results, and transmits them to LinkedIn’s servers and to third-party companies including an American-Israeli cybersecurity firm.

The user is never asked. Never told. LinkedIn’s privacy policy does not mention it.

Because LinkedIn knows each user’s real name, employer, and job title, it is not searching anonymous visitors. It is searching identified people at identified companies. Millions of companies. Every day. All over the world.

This is illegal and potentially a criminal offense in every jurisdiction we have examined.

(If you you’re in a hurry -> read our Executive Summary)

Who we are

Fairlinked e.V. is an association of commercial LinkedIn users. We represent the professionals who use LinkedIn, the businesses that invest in and depend on the platform, and the toolmakers who build products for it.

BrowserGate is our investigation and campaign to document one of the largest corporate espionage and data breach scandals in digital history, to inform the public and regulators, to collect evidence, and to raise funds for the legal proceedings required to stop it.

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