LinkedIn (...small GNHLUG logos)

[Jim Kuzdrall]

On Saturday 17 November 2007 08:56, Ted Roche wrote:
>
> I'd like to set up a GNHLUG group on LinkedIn,...

    Are you sure you want to get involved with LinkedIn?  I have no 
concrete information that the free come-on is just a front, but a 
push-advertising marketer would make a very high value sales list by 
cross-correlating the fields listed by linked professionals.  Have you 
read the User Agreement?

"In the event of any inconsistency between the LinkedIn Privacy Policy 
and this User Agreement, the User Agreement shall control."

"We reserve the right to modify this Agreement at any time, and without 
prior notice, by posting amended terms on this website."

    This effectively means the Privacy Policy is not worth the bits to 
send it.  As soon as LinkedIn gets enough names, they can infer 
interests from the map plus the data supplied by registrants.  Both the 
registrant and those that just link are vulnerable.  The User Policy 
provisions allow them to sell the information to any spam engine they 
please - including non-technical ones.

    Maybe I am old fashioned, but I don't like private companies (or 
governments) profiling me.  A few IC ads via email can be trashed, but 
it identifies me as a middle-class professional and, should times get 
tough, people might get nasty.  The less information the world has 
about me, the safer I feel.  How about you?

    There I go.  A paranoid over-reaction again.

Jim Kuzdrall