Metin Seven 🎨9h ago

LinkedIn Is Illegally Searching Your Computer

https://browsergate.eu

#tech #technology #BigTech #IT #enshittification #microslop #microsoft #LinkedIn #social #media #SocialMedia #data #security #safety #InfoSec #internet #web

LinkedIn Is Illegally Searching Your Computer

Microsoft is running one of the largest corporate espionage operations in modern history. Every time any of LinkedIn’s one billion users visits linkedin.com, hidden code searches their computer for installed software, collects the results, and transmits them to LinkedIn’s servers and to third-party companies including an American-Israeli cybersecurity firm. The user is never asked. Never told. LinkedIn’s privacy policy does not mention it. Because LinkedIn knows each user’s real name, employer, and job title, it is not searching anonymous visitors. It is searching identified people at identified companies. Millions of companies. Every day. All over the world.

BrowserGate
Show threadJesse5h ago
@metin tbh I'm not gonna read all this but I am curious how JavaScript would be capable of doing this
Show threadMetin Seven 🎨5h ago
@swellbastion Yeah, good question.
Show threadJesse5h ago
@metin hm maybe when they say installed software they mean browser extensions. I guess that would technically be an accurate descriptor but it's not what I imagine in my head when they say installed software
Show threadMetin Seven 🎨
@swellbastion I think so too.
6:13pmWeb
Show threadJennifer Moore 😷2h ago

@metin @swellbastion

It says "LinkedIn scans for over 200 products that directly compete with its own sales tools, including Apollo, Lusha, and ZoomInfo."

- are those three things browser extensions? or is it more like, they _have_ browser extensions? I'm not sure I fully understand what's being claimed.

Show threadMetin Seven 🎨2h ago

@unchartedworlds @swellbastion Yes, browser extensions:

https://hachyderm.io/@dalias/116336835254561308

Cassandrich (@[email protected])

@[email protected] @[email protected] It is browser extensions, and they do it via some backdoors Chrome intentionally leaves to poke at extensions that don't take measures to block this, along with profiling changes made to the DOM by extensions and correlating those with known behavior of particular extensions. They have some nasty exfiltration-obfuscation techniques going on to get the data back to them indicating that they know what they're doing is unethical and illegal.

Hachyderm.io
Show threadJennifer Moore 😷56m ago

@metin @swellbastion

So the extent to which they have visibility into your machine is mediated by which bits of software have browser extensions? And they can't see things like say for example LibreOffice or Reaper? (Or _does_ LibreOffice have a browser extension for some reason?)