Does LinkedIn access your email or contact list?

UPDATE 2 : Not automatically. Both the mobile application and browser page ask your permission before importing your contacts. However, the mobile app is a tiny bit misleading by showing a big friendly “Continue” button upon first login, with small text that actually explains what’s happening. It’s easy to impatiently click “continue” upon first login without realizing that (a) the app will now periodically send all your contact info to LinkedIn and (b) this is optional.

UPDATE 1

Apparently their original explanation was erroneous. They’ve sent another message with a different explanation for how they got my contacts (below), which is that I apparently “uploaded my android address book”. I never knowingly uploaded my android address book, but it looks like the linkedin mobile app automatically imports your email contact list whenever it can. This serves as a good reminder to check app permissions when you download an app to your phone!

———my transcript with a Linkedin employee is below ———

Member (05/23/2016 13:42 CST)

Hello, Hi Kelly, I've been looking through the user agreement and I do not see any section that seems to allow this. Can you point me to the exact sentence or paragraph in the user agreement that relates to this? Thank you, Forrest

LinkedIn Response (05/25/2016 08:14 CST)

Hi M. Forrest,

I furthered researched this and you uploaded your android address book a couple times this year. The most recent one was in March. When you upload your address book, you will possibly see suggestions to connect with members if you didn't send invitations out when you originally uploaded these contacts. Having that said, you want to make sure to unsync the contacts between Android and your LinkedIn account from your LinkedIn app.

The link below from our Help Center will provide the steps on how to unsync your contacts on your mobile device.

https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/global/id/47996

After you unsync your Android with your LinkedIn account, please let me know and I will be able to remove your imported contacts from your account. If these are not removed, you will still see these members appear on the suggestion notifications to connect with them.

Also, in the User Agreement under section 3.1, it states that "You agree that we may access, store and use any information that you provide in accordance with the terms of the privacy policy and your privacy settings."

I look forward to hearing your response in order to further assist you.

Kelly

Consumer Support Specialist

my original answer to this Quora question is below:

YES. Straight from the horse’s mouth: “the people you may know could have been uploaded to LinkedIn through auto authorization if you had at any time your LinkedIn account open and accessed any of your emails through the same browser.” Also “there is not a setting to specifically turn this feature off.”

Here’s the full text of my correspondence with them, through the linkedin help center interface:

Member (05/18/2016 14:39 CST)

Subject: How can I prevent Linkedin from accessing my gmail contacts?

Your Question: I've never knowingly given linkedin permission to access my gmail contacts, but it keeps suggesting I connect on linkedin with people whose only connection to me is messages through gmail - and it usually happens suspiciously right after I send and receive a few emails from that person. This behavior has in the past included people whom I know do not have a linkedin account, since it suggests that I "invite them to linkedin" - which means the other person cannot be allowing linkedin access to their emails, it must be through my linkedin account.

How do I keep linkedin from accessing my gmail contacts? How do I delete the list of contacts that linkedin has already harvested from my gmail account?

Thank you

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Member (05/19/2016 11:46 CST)

Oh, and I also tried to use the interface at https://www.linkedin.com/connect... to remove synced sources but the only options I was given were to sync various sources (gmail, google contacts, google calendar), not remove them. Any help with this issue would be appreciated. Thank you

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LinkedIn Response (05/19/2016 18:18 CST)

Hi M. Forrest,

I'm really sorry to hear about this and can understand your concerns. Please know that we'd never import contacts or send invitations without your permission.

It appears you may have sent out a number of invitations using the address book import feature on our site and inadvertently uploaded your personal address book. This feature has the potential to send invitations to your entire address book if the correct box isn't checked.

Sometimes people don't realize they're sending invitations this way. If it helps, I can remove your imported contacts on my end and then you will stop receiving the prompts to upgrade to these members.

I look forward to hearing your response in order to further assist you.

Kelly

Consumer Support Specialist

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Member (05/20/2016 15:57 CST)

Hi Kelly, Thanks for looking into this. I admit it's possible that I may have used those tools you mentioned and I don't remember doing so. However, I certainly haven't done so in the past year, and during that time linkedin has recommended some contacts which I've only started emailing a few weeks and months ago. Is it possible that linkedin has continued access to my gmail contacts or account? If so, I'd like to remove that access. I don't see anywhere on your website which indicates that my account currently is granting access to my gmail contacts, but linkedin seems to be accessing my gmail contacts anyway. Either way, I'd also like linkedin to verify whether you have any imported contacts associated with my account, and then delete them. Thank you, Forrest

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Hi Forrest,

Thanks for your reply. What you have encountered is that the people you may know could have been uploaded to LinkedIn through auto authorization if you had at any time your LinkedIn account open and accessed any of your emails through the same browser. I am very sorry for any inconvenience and frustration this has caused. If you would like, I can delete your imported contact information from the address book upload that you completed.

In order from preventing this from happening again, you will want to be careful to not open up your personal email address in the same browser when you have your LinkedIn account open.

Please let me know if you would like me to remove/delete your imported contact information from your account.

I look forward to hearing your response in order to further assist you.

Kelly

Consumer Support Specialist

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Member (05/23/2016 11:40 CST)

I was not aware that linkedin can automatically access my emails if it's open on the same browser. How can I revoke this "auto authorization"? I don't remember ever authorizing anything like this.

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Hi M. Forrest,

Thanks for contacting me back. Per the updated user agreement, this is now a common occurrence. There is not a setting to specifically turn this feature off. The only way to truly prevent this from happening again is to open up those items in separate browsers. We are not doing this to invade your privacy, we are doing this to assist you in growing your network. We don't share this information with anyone else and is particular to your account only.

Again, I am very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Please let me know if there is anything else that I can help you with.

Thank you,

Kelly

Consumer Support Specialist

Yes, LinkedIn can access your email or phone contact list if and only if you authorize it. We offer this feature as a way to quickly and easily build your network on LinkedIn by seeing who you already know on the platform, as well as inviting those who aren't yet members to join you on the platform.

We do not send invitations without an action from the member. When you add connections you see the following:

• A description of what occurs when you import your contacts to LinkedIn
• A page allowing members to unselect contacts from the connection request.

On desktop, you must go to the address book import page and authenticate the import of your contacts from your email. On the LinkedIn mobile app, there is a similar screen that allows import of your contacts from your mobile device’s phone book.

It does not happen just by being logged into LinkedIn and your email on the same browser. Moreover, you can view and delete your imported contacts at any time by managing your imported contacts.

Please note that Forrest Abouelnasr's initial answer is inaccurate due to misinformation from our representative, which we've corrected. He's also posted a correction in reply to his answer.

We apologize for any confusion created and will ensure we correct any further misinformation in the future.