Business social networking site LinkedIn has been forced to change a new advertising feature after using members’ names and photos in ads on the site, seemingly without permission.
The company began testing a new form of advertising it called “social ads” that shared users’ public actions, like recommendations or following companies, in a commercial format. The ads would show a user the photo of another user in their network of personal connections and indicate that they had recommended a product or company.
The company claimed the scheme was designed to deliver more useful ads, but it was inundated with complaints that it was a privacy violation, particularly because users have to opt out of the feature rather than opt in.
Yesterday, the company retreated, informing members that their photos would no longer accompany ads. Instead, ads will state the number of a user’s connections who either follow or recommended the product or company.
Ryan Roslansky, head of marketing solution products at LinkedIn, defended the company’s actions on its blog, explaining that no personal information was shared with third-party advertisers. “The only information that [was] used in social ads is information that is already publicly available and viewable by anyone in your network,” he wrote.
But he also admitted that the company should have handled the situation differently. “We could have communicated our intentions … more clearly,” he said.
