LinkedIn lawsuit over use of customer-data for AI training dismissed
What's the story
A proposed class action lawsuit against LinkedIn has been thrown out.
The suit, filed by Alessandro De La Torre, accused the company of violating the privacy rights of millions of Premium customers.
De La Torre alleged that the Microsoft-owned company had disclosed their private messages to train generative artificial intelligence (AI) models, a claim which the company has vehemently denied as baseless.
Case dismissal
Plaintiff withdraws allegations against LinkedIn
De La Torre voluntarily withdrew his allegations against LinkedIn in the San Jose, California federal court, according to Reuters.
The decision comes just nine days after he had initially sued the company.
The plaintiff had accused LinkedIn of breaching a commitment to use personal customer data exclusively for service enhancement, by allegedly sharing customers' messages with third parties involved in AI development.
Policy change
Privacy policy update sparks controversy
The lawsuit originated from a September change in LinkedIn's privacy policy, which revealed the alleged unauthorized data sharing.
The company said a new account setting to prevent future data sharing wouldn't affect past AI training.
This revelation caused confusion and concern among users about how their information was being used for AI training, according to Eli Wade-Scott, managing partner at Edelson PC, which represented De La Torre.
Denial
LinkedIn denies misuse of private messages for AI training
In light of the allegations, LinkedIn has firmly denied using private messages for AI training.
Sarah Wight, a lawyer and vice president for the company, confirmed this in a LinkedIn post on Thursday. "We never did that," she said unequivocally.
This statement is consistent with Wade-Scott's admission that LinkedIn provided evidence showing it did not misuse user data in this way.