LinkedIn is now using everyone's content to train their AI tool -- they just auto opted everyone in (except folks in the EU, it seems)
I recommend opting out now (AND that orgs put an end to auto opt-in, it's not cool)
Opt out steps: Settings and Privacy > Data Privacy > Data for Generative AI Improvement (OFF)

We shouldn't have to take a bunch of steps to undo a choice that a company made for us.
Orgs think they can get away with auto opt in because "everyone does it".
If we come together and demand that orgs allow us to CHOOSE to opt in, things will hopefully change one day.

LinkedIn seems to have auto enrolled folks in the US, but hearing from folks in the EU that they are not seeing this listed in their settings (likely due to privacy regulations).
If you're outside of the US, I'm curious if you're seeing this?

Why does opting out of training generative AI models matter? How does it impact folks?

Well, generative AI tools build outputs based on inputs they are trained on. AI tools have a hard time synthesizing new content so allowing AI tools to be trained on your original writing, photos and videos means it’s likely that elements of your writing, photos, or videos will be melted together with other people’s content to build AI outputs (without credit to you).

In short, you may find your original writing, photo, and video content “reused” or “rehashed” by AI, and *sometimes AI plagiarizes writing, photos, and video in their entirety*.

Opting out of participating in AI training is a good idea for anyone who creates original content.

@racheltobac Yes in UK. Turned it off today.
@racheltobac I agree! I did see it and turned it off, but yeah, it's too bad that lots of our data is siphoned into these systems without any warning or notice
@racheltobac and just when I thought LinkedIn hit peak enshittification… smh
@k3ym0 linkedin's always been on the bleeding edge of sleazy tech co practices lmao
@k3ym0 @racheltobac It becomes more like Facebook and Nextdoor every day. I stumbled across a thread where people were joking about the pager explosions in Lebanon. I'm sure all of that got siphoned into a LLM.
@racheltobac Just for additional info, since the UK isn't part of the EU anymore, this seems to have been enabled for us too. 

@racheltobac I was auto-enrolled here in the US.

Thanks for the reminder to delete my LinkedIn account!

@racheltobac Yes, in New Zealand as well.
@racheltobac damn, would check those if LinkedIn didn't lock my account the moment I applied for a job, can't even get in the settings to delete it, it's just left as a ghost account
@racheltobac Every time something like this happens there was 100% a meeting where someone said "Tis better to beg forgiveness than ask permission."
@racheltobac Even though I hate stupid cookie banners everywhere, I have to give credit to EU for keeping an eye on our privacy and also enforcing it. Not even giants like Google or Facebook fuck around, because they'll quickly find out if they do. I just wish users from rest of the world had same "luxury" as we do in EU. In USA, everything is for sale by default and it's disgusting how they treat user data for granted.

@rejzor Cookie banners are not due to the EU but due to malicious compliance by corporations.

https://www.bitecode.dev/p/there-is-no-eu-cookie-banner-law

There is no EU cookie banner law

You mean it's greed? I'm shocked!

Bite code!
@racheltobac UK. Thank you very much for telling me because mine was turned on.
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@racheltobac Every time I see a tech company do this auto opt-in crap, I assum that means they're telling you they already did it.

@catsalad @racheltobac EU peeps are protected.

Edit: oops, Rachel mentioned that.

@davep @racheltobac Yeah, those percentage-based fines carry a lot more weight. Plus, you know, actual data privacy laws.

@racheltobac rather than simply canceling your LinkedIn, which is not easy, I advise people to poison it months in advance before they try deleting.

So I filled my undeletable profile with crazy wrong absurd shit, wacky job titles, impossible tenures at companies that no longer exist, gibberish, and cat pictures.

That way, when you try "deleting" it, which would only serve to have them archive it, they are left with worthless crap to train AI on.

Facebook, too.

It's fun!

@racheltobac Thank you for spreading the news... It's really concerning that this is happening with no or little push back from the public. :(
@racheltobac from France here, I can’t see this setting
@GuillaumeRossolini
Double-check.what @qper wrote above in this thread.
@elmerot I’m on the website and the setting is not there

@elmerot if this is geofenced and people are using a VPN, perhaps?

Although the GDPR doesn’t have geographical borders, it applies to EU citizens worldwide, I understand there are few technical ways to segment users

@GuillaumeRossolini
Yeah, I was also considering VPN. Or simply what you put there as your address.
@racheltobac don't opt out, just remove your profile
@racheltobac I wonder what result happens to people that were auto enrolled and then turned it off - I assume all that data was already batched and fed into models immediately and this setting only controls future data, which doesn't feel very "opt-out", it feels like no option at all.
@swiftone @racheltobac I was wondering this too. It's completely infeasible to re-train an AI model every time somebody opts out. This button does nothing.

@racheltobac thanks for this.

I rarely use LinkedIn, but I just turned this off, and while I was at it a bunch of other stuff on that page as well.

@racheltobac It seems to be on for me in the UK.
@racheltobac I'm in the Netherlands, and the link I'd been given ended in a 404. Browsing to Settings manually, I see nothing even vaguely similar.
@racheltobac Just delete your account.

@nf3xn No one is going to delete their account, except apparently
@the_turtle. Consumers are pushovers.

@racheltobac
> Orgs think they can get away with auto opt in because "everyone does it".

They’re right. They *can* get away with it. Enshitification proliferates without limit because consumers have no spine for the most part. There are too many pushovers and the surveillance advertisers know it.

@bojkotiMalbona @nf3xn @racheltobac he's also fucking RETIRED and regards LinkedIn as the MySpace for people with vendor certifications who say "impactful."

I urge you to piss in the LinkedIn well, so that AI cattle drinking from it will sicken and die like a 1940s Western.

(Georgia O'Keefe cattle skull picture here)

@the_turtle @bojkotiMalbona @racheltobac I have never had (a real) one. Never needed one and don't need one now - so it might be a bit rich for me to tell people to delete their account, but I am almost certain that having a LinkedIn account is a terrible idea and just puts you directly in the wastebasket career-wise. LinkedIn is NOT your friend.
@racheltobac how come it is much easier for tech companies in the US to abuse US citizens than it is in Europe. I mean we are not even asking for over regulation, but come on, "auto enroll"?
@racheltobac Australia was opted in. Turned it off yesterday.
@racheltobac thanks for the heads up - I had this turned on in my long dormant linked in account in Australia
@racheltobac Thanks. I've now post this info on from my account on LinkedIn.
@racheltobac given how unhinged linkedin is as a social network, I am really doubtful about what a AI trained on that could achieve.
@racheltobac I plan on hacking it with messages that counter the capitalistic dreck spewed all over there.
@racheltobac thanks for the reminder. Had to go shutoff all the ad stuff as well.
@racheltobac ugh auto opt-in should definitely not be allowed!
@racheltobac
Thank you for this information. Do you know how to opt-out in a business page? I could not find it.

@racheltobac

let’s just say - hypothetically, of course - we manage to upload a brain… or we achieve a machine capable of self determination. The argument that looking at data (for training purposes) is 1000% equivalent to theft prevents such an entity from legally interacting online with any content…

I feel weird about that. I extend arguments of civil rights… just for robots… current trends will result a situation where skynet is morally justified in taking action.

But…

@racheltobac auto opt in sucks - and absolutely needs to die as a practice.

But yeah - I’m ambivalent to arguments we shouldn’t be training ai at all… seems like xenophobia that has no recourse for seeing the enemy (tech/machines) as anything remotely worthy of co-existence… Ludditism on steroids.

Fear based arguments don’t work well on my mind. I’m not a republican, lol.

@racheltobac @vicgrinberg we are screw, because for every tracking shit we have an OSS shitless alternative.... Except for linkedin....

@v_raton
"computer" types should just have their own websites with profiles, right? Only some do. I don't, so asking: why don't we?

I suspect #LinkedIn sort of works for HR types, and that compels everybody else to be on it.

@racheltobac @vicgrinberg

@tetrislife @racheltobac @vicgrinberg but now #linkedin is awlful for HR too, a bunch of bulshit and political posts....
@racheltobac I recommend just deleting LinkedIn. The #enshitification won't stop.
@racheltobac Can confirm for Germany that this option is not available in the privacy settings.

@racheltobac
Yes it’s been introduced in UK also, now that we are no longer in EU.

Bruised a finger hitting that opt out button.

@racheltobac

That's why I'm a proud member of noyb.eu since it's inception

@WorldCitizen @racheltobac do you know if noyb.eu has any presence on Mastodon?
@athlete4
They do. But folks are saying MS is complying w/the GDPR on this in Europe. So nothing for noyb to do here.
@WorldCitizen

@bojkotiMalbona
@athlete4

Yes, but @noybeu is at least partly responsible for the GDPR having some teeth as they use it successfully even against the biggest of the big. So LinkedIn honoring it might as well be due to that. Not sure how much role Max Schrems & NOYB did play in introducing the GDPR in the first place, but wouldn't be suprised if they had their say as well.

@WorldCitizen @bojkotiMalbona @athlete4 it will be interesting asking to remove your data from a pretrained deep learning model. If learning becomes incremental - how would they know whether your data is still within the model - you would have to retrain from scratch without any of your data - this would require constant retraining as people continually ask to be removed