Controversies
Controversies tied to this brand in public sources. A listing is not a finding of fault.
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2026
LinkedIn sues Mantheos over data scraping
Lawsuit filed
LinkedIn filed a lawsuit against Mantheos, a Singapore-based data solutions provider, and its founders. The complaint alleged unauthorized scraping of millions of LinkedIn member profiles. The dispute concerns the collection of member profile data without authorization. The event was reported on November 4, 2026.
LinkedIn filed a lawsuit against Singapore-based data solutions provider Mantheos and its founders, alleging unauthorized scraping of millions of LinkedIn member profiles.
Source excerpt
LinkedIn has filed a lawsuit against Mantheos, a Singapore-based data solutions provider, and its founders for "unauthorised scraping of millions of LinkedIn member profiles".
2021
Report alleges LinkedIn user data breach
Issue disclosure
In mid-2021, a report alleged that data from 700 million LinkedIn users was being offered for sale on a hacker forum. According to the article headline, LinkedIn denied the allegation. The report did not establish that the data had been obtained through a breach of LinkedIn's systems, and the company's denial is part of the same account. The event centered on the claim of a large-scale data offering and the company's rejection of it, rather than on any confirmed compromise, affected individuals, or outcome.
Company response
Denial — LinkedIn
co denies
Source excerpt
Online privacy firm alleges data breach of 700 mn LinkedIn users, co denies
Breach was reported by RestorePrivacy, according to whose website, the user of a popular hacker forum advertised data from 700 million LinkedIn users for sale on June 22
2021
Reports allege exposure of LinkedIn user data; LinkedIn disputes breach characterization
Issue disclosure
An article reported that a hacker exposed personal data attributed to around 700 million LinkedIn users, stating that the data was discovered on June 22. LinkedIn disputed the article's characterization of the incident as a data breach. According to LinkedIn, the data was scraped from LinkedIn and other websites, and no private member data was exposed.
The article reports that a hacker exposed personal data attributed to around 700 million LinkedIn users and says the data was discovered on June 22. LinkedIn said the data was scraped from LinkedIn and other websites and stated that no private member data was exposed, disputing the article's characterization as a data breach.
Company response
Clarification — LinkedIn
Our teams have investigated a set of alleged LinkedIn data that has been posted for sale. We want to be clear that this is not a data breach and no private LinkedIn member data was exposed.
Source excerpt
The data breach was discovered on June 22 when the hacker responsible advertised the sale of the data on a forum on the dark web.
According to Ben Lovejoy, tech journalist for 9to5Mac, a hacker exposed the personal data of around 700 million users.
2021
LinkedIn user data leak reported
Issue disclosure
A report said data affecting 500 million users had been obtained by attackers and offered for sale online. A LinkedIn spokesperson confirmed that the data being sold came from LinkedIn; the spokesperson said the dataset reviewed appeared to include publicly viewable LinkedIn information and aggregated information from other websites or companies, and did not include private LinkedIn member account data.
Company response
Investigation — LinkedIn
我们正在调查，网上发布的数据集看起来包含LinkedIn公开可浏览信息，还包括来自其它网站或者企业的聚合信息。
Clarification — LinkedIn
在我们能够审查到的数据中，并没有包括LinkedIn的私人会员账户数据。
Source excerpt
我们正在调查，网上发布的数据集看起来包含LinkedIn公开可浏览信息，还包括来自其它网站或者企业的聚合信息。
从LinkedIn收集会员数据违反我们的服务条款
据Cyber News报道，职业社交网站LinkedIn信息大规模泄露，影响5亿用户，目前信息已经被攻击者拿到网上出售。
2020
Wayne Farms sues LinkedIn over alleged trademark infringement
Lawsuit filed
Wayne Farms LLC filed a trademark complaint against LinkedIn Corporation and a defendant identified as John Doe. The complaint alleged that a fake profile used Wayne Farms' logo and trademark to solicit fraudulent product orders and money. The filing accused the defendants of trademark infringement, unfair competition, dilution and cybersquatting. These are allegations made in the complaint and not a court determination.
Source excerpt
The plaintiff accused the defendants of trademark infringement, unfair competition, dilution, and cybersquatting.
Wayne Farms LLC filed a trademark complaint in the Northern District of Illinois on Wednesday alleging that an individual they call John Doe used its logo and counterfeited the company’s trademark to acquire fraudulent orders for products and receive money. The complaint was also filed against Linkedin Corporation, which allegedly allowed the individual to place its logo on their website and enabled him to “promote his fraudulent transactions.”
2020
LinkedIn sued over alleged clipboard access
Lawsuit filed
An iPhone user filed a lawsuit against LinkedIn in federal court, alleging that the company's app read sensitive content from Apple's Universal Clipboard without notifying users. According to the report, LinkedIn had released a new version of its app the week before the lawsuit to end the practice.
An iPhone user sued LinkedIn in federal court, alleging that its app read sensitive content from Apple's Universal Clipboard without notifying users. The report also says LinkedIn had released a new app version the prior week to end the practice.
Source excerpt
According to the lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court by Adam Bauer, LinkedIn reads the Clipboard information without notifying the user.
Microsoft Corp's LinkedIn was sued by a New York-based iPhone user on Friday for allegedly reading and diverting users' sensitive content from Apple Inc's Universal Clipboard application.
An iPhone user has sued Microsoft’s LinkedIn social network for allegedly reading and diverting sensitive information from the clipboard.
2020
LinkedIn responds to racist comments at employee town hall
Company response
LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky apologized to employees after anonymous comments about racial inequality and bias appeared during a town hall. He said LinkedIn would not allow anonymous comments at such events in the future.
Company response
Apology — LinkedIn
LinkedIn's new CEO apologized to employees
Remediation — LinkedIn
The company will not allow anonymous comments at such events in the future, he said.
Source excerpt
LinkedIn's new CEO apologized to employees after the company allowed a meeting to address protests across the United States over police brutality and systemic racism prompted by the death of George Floyd to be taken over by "appalling," anonymous employee comments.
The company will not allow anonymous comments at such events in the future, he said.
2015
LinkedIn reaches settlement with premium subscribers
Settlement
LinkedIn reached a settlement that would allow up to 800,000 U.S. users who had subscribed to premium offerings during the specified period to claim approximately $1 each after attorney fees. The users' class-action suit contended that LinkedIn made deceptive security claims.
Source excerpt
LinkedIn has settled a class-action lawsuit filed shortly after the social network allowed over 6.5 million passwords to be exposed by Russian hackers in 2012.
The settlement, which was just recently approved, will set up a $1.25 million fund for affected users.
LinkedIn has agreed to this settlement to avoid the distraction and expense of ongoing litigation,” said LinkedIn in a statement. But the company “continues to deny that it committed, or threatened, or attempted to commit any wrongful act or violation of law or duty alleged in the Action,”