Opt In Opt Out, What’s It All About?

If you’re on LinkedIn, and you don’t want your name and photo used for third party advertising, here’s a link that tells you how to opt out. Of course, that begs the question, “why do I have to say no?” That is the very essence of the concept of “opting out.” In short, your default setting on LinkedIn is that you are eligible to be used in social media advertising, unless you say otherwise. The opposite approach, of course, is the “opt in” procedure, where you need to be asked first. But that’s kind of a pain, so it’s not a surprise that LinkedIn opts for the opt out (am I using the word “opt” too much? Are readers opting out of this post?) Of course, this all begs the question, “how can they get away with that?” And for the answer to that question, check the LinkedIn Privacy Policy at section 2. Here’s the key language: LinkedIn may use these actions [i.e. your interactions on the site] to create social ads for your network on LinkedIn using your profile photo and name. You can control whether LinkedIn uses your name and picture in social ads here. So when you sign up to use LinkedIn, you kind of are opting in. You just don’t probably realize it. Now you know. You’re welcome.