LinkedIn Faces Italian Probe Following User Data Scraping
(Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp.'s LinkedIn faces a probe by the Italian privacy watchdog after reports that the personal data of some 500 million users was scraped off the platform and posted online.
The Italian authority said in a statement late Thursday that it started an investigation following “the dissemination of user data, including IDs, full names, email addresses, telephone numbers.”
The regulator said Italy has one of the highest numbers of subscribers to LinkedIn in Europe and called on affected users to “pay particular attention to any anomalies” related to their phone number and their account. Scraping is a technique that extracts data from a website, usually with automated software.
The company said in a statement that “this was not a LinkedIn data breach, and no private member account data from LinkedIn was included.”
“When anyone tries to take member data and use it for purposes LinkedIn and our members haven't agreed to, we work to stop them and hold them accountable,” it said.
Big Tech's Top EU Data Watchdog Hits Back at ‘Ludicrous' Critics
The Italian move comes after Ireland's privacy authority said it was looking into a leak over the weekend of the personal data of more than half a billion Facebook Inc. users. The Irish Data Protection Commission was in contact with LinkedIn on Thursday and is now waiting for answers “to a number of questions,” the watchdog's spokesman Graham Doyle said in an email.
Luxembourg's data authority in a statement on Friday said it's trying to find out how many of its citizens are affected and would liaise with other national regulators on the matter.
The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, took effect in May 2018, paving the way for national authorities in the region to levy fines on companies that violate the rules of as much as 4% of annual sales.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
-
High US Salaries, No Green Card Certainty: The Financial Calculation Facing Indian H-1B Families
The suspension of PERM processing at eight technology employers does not cancel existing H-1B visas. What it does is force a question many Indian families have been avoiding: is the US salary worth tying your career and family plans to one employer?
-
Swiggy vs Eternal: Food Delivery's Two Rivals Are No Longer In The Same Race
Eternal is building a private AI assistant, dark.ai. Swiggy is still working out how to make Instamart pay, with an operating loss of Rs 895 crore in the July-September quarter while Blinkit stayed profitable.
-
Where You Live Shapes How You Get To Work | The Reason Why
Two-wheelers are the most popular way to get to work in India, accounting for nearly 43% of workplace commutes.
-
Unhedged Position: Can India See An Indonesia-Style Time Correction?
The Nifty is trading below levels it first clocked in 2024. Is there, then, as I have suggested in the headline, potential that the current time correction drags on painfully for the next three-five, even ten years?
-
Navigating Friction And Energy Realities: An Analysis Of Marco Rubio's October Visit To India
Occurring at a critical juncture marked by stalled trade negotiations and escalating geopolitical pressures over global energy supplies, the visit offers a profound window into modern US-India relations.
-
India Exports Capital. Why Not Export Trusteeship?
The big question, then, is whether India can build an institution that global borrowers, investors, banks, and lawyers can trust, even without an Indian connection.
-
France's Economy & Politics Are In Crisis | The Reason Why
Let's look at how the French economy and politics evolved under Nicolas Sarkozy, Franois Hollande and Emmanuel Macron.
-
You May Inherit The Business. You Must Earn Its Credibility.
Succession tests the founder's ability to share authority as much as it tests the next generation's readiness to assume it.
-
Signing Deals Is One Thing; Making Them Work Is Another | The Week In Whys
Sometimes, things don't turn out as planned. Indian companies have lost some bids to rivals, some projects won't produce until 2030.
-
FOMC Wall, PERM Suspension, Hospital Stocks | Talking Points This Week
A PERM suspension would directly affect green-card sponsorship rather than H-1B visas, so the near-term earnings impact could remain relatively limited. The key question is whether this marks a new phase in US scrutiny of Indian IT.
