LinkedIn

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Given that LinkedIn is positioned as the more sophisticated social network, it would be interesting to see if its users were more likely to read the terms of service, which are comprised of the User Agreement, Privacy Policy, and Cookie Policy​. I suspect not since they seem to indicate that they don't want to represent that the website is fit for a particular purpose, say, for instance, business networking. Notably, the privacy policy is clear in mentioning that your data can be accessed by third parties as a result of its  publication on LinkedIn. This recent update came just a couple months before a court ruled a startup could scrape LinkedIn data, which may be less coincidental than it looks.

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Representations & Warranties

 

"TO THE EXTENT ALLOWED UNDER LAW, LINKEDIN AND ITS AFFILIATES (AND THOSE THAT LINKEDIN WORKS WITH TO PROVIDE THE SERVICES) (A) DISCLAIM ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES AND REPRESENTATIONS (E.G. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY OF DATA, AND NONINFRINGEMENT); (B) DO NOT GUARANTEE THAT THE SERVICES WILL FUNCTION WITHOUT INTERRUPTION OR ERRORS, AND (C) PROVIDE THE SERVICE (INCLUDING CONTENT AND INFORMATION) ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS.

SOME LAWS DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN DISCLAIMERS, SO SOME OR ALL OF THESE DISCLAIMERS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU."

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Limitations on Liability

 

"TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER LAW (AND UNLESS LINKEDIN HAS ENTERED INTO A SEPARATE WRITTEN AGREEMENT THAT OVERRIDES THIS CONTRACT), LINKEDIN AND ITS AFFILIATES (AND THOSE THAT LINKEDIN WORKS WITH TO PROVIDE THE SERVICES) SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU OR OTHERS FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF DATA, OPPORTUNITIES, REPUTATION, PROFITS OR REVENUES, RELATED TO THE SERVICES (E.G. OFFENSIVE OR DEFAMATORY STATEMENTS, DOWN TIME OR LOSS, USE OF, OR CHANGES TO, YOUR INFORMATION OR CONTENT).

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE LIABILITY OF LINKEDIN AND ITS AFFILIATES (AND THOSE THAT LINKEDIN WORKS WITH TO PROVIDE THE SERVICES) EXCEED, IN THE AGGREGATE FOR ALL CLAIMS, AN AMOUNT THAT IS THE LESSER OF (A) FIVE TIMES THE MOST RECENT MONTHLY OR YEARLY FEE THAT YOU PAID FOR A PREMIUM SERVICE, IF ANY, OR (B) US $1000.

THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY IS PART OF THE BASIS OF THE BARGAIN BETWEEN YOU AND LINKEDIN AND SHALL APPLY TO ALL CLAIMS OF LIABILITY (E.G. WARRANTY, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, CONTRACT, LAW) AND EVEN IF LINKEDIN OR ITS AFFILIATES HAS BEEN TOLD OF THE POSSIBILITY OF ANY SUCH DAMAGE, AND EVEN IF THESE REMEDIES FAIL THEIR ESSENTIAL PURPOSE.

SOME LAWS DO NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY, SO THESE LIMITS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU."

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Indemnification

 

As of the 6.7.2017 version, the agreement does not have a specific indemnification provision.

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Key Definitions​

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There is not a definitions section in the agreement but there may be defined terms in a particular section if they refer to a specific entity, like the broader LinkedIn services.

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Sharing Agreements

 

"Any information you include on your profile and any content you post or social action (e.g. likes, follows, comments, shares) you take on our Services will be seen by others.

Profile

Your profile is fully visible to all Members and customers of our Services. As detailed in our Help Center, your settings, degree of connection with the viewing Member, the subscriptions they may have, their usage of our Services, access channels and search types (e.g., by name or by keyword) impact the availability of your profile and certain fields.

 

Posts, Likes, Follows, Comments, Messages

Our Services allow viewing and sharing information including through posts, follows, likes and comments.

 

When you share a post (e.g., an update, video or blog), the default (which you can change) is to share it publicly. Others who are not your connections will be able to find (including through search engines) and see your post.

When you like, comment on or share another’s post, others will see it, including the person who initiated the post.

In a group, posts are visible to others in the group. Your membership in groups is public and part of your profile unless you change the default settings.

Any information you share through companies’ or other organizations’ pages on our Services will be viewable by it and others who visit those pages.

When you follow a person or organization, you are visible to others and that “page owner” as a follower. We provide aggregate insights about the followers and viewers to the respective page owners.

We let senders know when you act on their message, subject to your settings where applicable.

Your employer can see how you use Services they provided for your work (e.g. as a recruiter or sales agent) and related information. We will not show them your job searches or personal messages.

Enterprise Accounts

Your employer may offer you access to our enterprise Services such as Recruiter, Sales Navigator, Elevate, Referrals, Lookup or our advertising Campaign Manager. They can also buy access for you to our online learning products. Your employer can review and manage your use of such enterprise Services.

 

Depending on the enterprise Service, before you use such Service, we will ask for permission to share relevant data from your profile or use of our non-enterprise Services. For example, users of Sales Navigator will be asked to share their “social selling index”, a score calculated in part based on their personal account activity. We understand that certain activities such as job hunting and personal messages are sensitive and so we do not share those with your employer unless you choose to share it with them through our Services (for example, by applying for a new position in the same company or mention your job hunting in a message to a co-worker through our Services).

 

3.2 Communication Archival

 

Regulated Members may need to store communications outside of our Service.

Some Members (or their employers) need, for legal or professional compliance, to archive their communications and social media activity, and will use services of others to provide these archival services. We enable such archiving outside of our Services. For example, a financial advisor needs to archive communications with her clients through our Services in order to maintain her professional financial advisor license.

 

3.3 Others’ Services

 

You may link your account with others’ services so that they can look up your contacts’ profiles or post your shares on such platforms.

 

Subject to your preference, other services may look-up your profile.

When you opt to link your account with other services, personal data will become available to them. The sharing and use of that personal data will be described in, or linked to, a consent screen when you opt to link the accounts. For example, you may link your Twitter or WeChat account to share content from our Services into these other services, or your email provider may give you the option to upload your LinkedIn contacts into its own service. You may revoke the link with such accounts.

 

Subject to your settings, excerpts from your profile will appear on the services of others (e.g., search engine results, mail and calendar applications that show a user a “mini” LinkedIn profile of the person they are meeting or messaging, social media aggregators, talent and lead managers). “Old” profile information remains on these services until they update their data cache with changes you made to your profile.

 

3.4 Related Services

 

We share your data across our different Services and LinkedIn-affiliated entities.

We will share your personal data with our affiliates to provide and develop our Services. We combine information internally across the different Services covered by this Privacy Policy. For example, SlideShare will recommend better content to you based on your LinkedIn profile or the articles you read on Pulse, and LinkedIn could personalize your feed or job recommendations based on your learning video history, because we are able to identify you across different Services using cookies or similar technologies.

 

3.5 Service Providers

 

We may use others to help us with our Services.

We use others to help us provide our Services (e.g., maintenance, analysis, audit, payments, fraud detection, marketing and development). They will have access to your information as reasonably necessary to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated to not to disclose or use it for other purposes.

 

3.6 Legal Disclosures

 

We may need to share your data when we believe it’s required by law or to protect your and our rights and security.

It is possible that we will need to disclose information about you when required by law, subpoena, or other legal process or if we have a good faith belief that disclosure is reasonably necessary to (1) investigate, prevent, or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities or to assist government enforcement agencies; (2) enforce our agreements with you, (3) investigate and defend ourselves against any third-party claims or allegations, (4) protect the security or integrity of our Service (such as by sharing with companies facing similar threats); or (5) exercise or protect the rights and safety of LinkedIn, our Members, personnel, or others. We attempt to notify Members about legal demands for their personal data when appropriate in our judgment, unless prohibited by law or court order or when the request is an emergency. We may dispute such demands when we believe, in our discretion, that the requests are overbroad, vague or lack proper authority, but we do not promise to challenge every demand. To learn more see our Data Request Guidelines and Transparency Report.

 

3.7 Change in Control or Sale

 

We may share your data when our business is sold to others, but it must continue to be used in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

We can also share your personal data as part of a sale, merger or change in control, or in preparation for any of these events. Any other entity which buys us or part of our business will have the right to continue to use your data, but only in the manner set out in this Privacy Policy unless you agree otherwise."

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