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LinkedIn just imported my whole gmail contact list without asking me

10 points by t_fatus ↗ HN
We all have seen the different posts on HN and on the web warning us about LinkedIn practices regarding contact importation, how they constantly try to trick you into giving them your whole contact list. But we think we know how to avoid them, we're better than this of course.

This morning I checked on the "people you might know" and 1 out of 4 people is one of my gmail contacts, with a nice "Invite contact" button.

They got me, I have absolutely now idea how they did this.

I've added some contacts yesterday using their (crappy / laggy) app, using the nice and round "+" button on people I knew, but never did I allow linkedin to import my contact book. (neither gmail to give it away btw ...)

Now I'm asking myself: how did they get me? I'm pretty savy, thus if they get me they'll trick others, less savy users. Without them giving their consent (or, as it should has append for me, unknowing they were giving their consent ...)

How can a company think this is a good idea to trick its users like this?

4 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 704 ms ] thread
JoachimSchipper
Note that LinkedIn will offer to connect you to people whose contact book contains you - it's not necessarily because you uploaded your address book.
mindvirus
Do you use the same password for both? LinkedIn uses a lot of dark patterns - one trick is to put an email/password box that looks like it's for LinkedIn, but is actually asking for your email password. I fell for that once, but fortunately use a different password for each - I didn't catch on until I failed to log in 3 times.
t_fatus
No, that would be really unsecure ...
ag_47
I avoid official apps in general. Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. They immediately leech into your contact list. If I'm forced to install, I make sure the contacts permission is turned off before launching the app for the first time.

Plus, the web experience is getting very good. eg. I only use Facebook via Chrome on my phone. It even supports background notifications.