A proposed class-action lawsuit accusing Microsoft’s LinkedIn of improperly using the private data of its Premium customers to train generative artificial intelligence (AI) models has been voluntarily dismissed.
The lawsuit, which was filed in a San Jose, California federal court, has been dropped by the plaintiff just nine days after it was initiated and following a strong denial of the allegations by LinkedIn.
Allegations of privacy breach triggered lawsuit
Alessandro De La Torre, the plaintiff in the case, had claimed that LinkedIn violated the privacy of its Premium members by sharing their private messages with third parties involved in AI training.
This action, De La Torre argued, was a breach of LinkedIn’s promise to use personal customer data solely to improve its own services.
The lawsuit was triggered by a LinkedIn privacy policy update in September, which revealed that user data was being used to train AI models.
The update also noted that a new account setting aimed at preventing data sharing would not affect previous AI training, which created concern amongst its users.
LinkedIn’s firm denial and lawsuit dismissal
Following the suit, LinkedIn quickly issued a statement denying that any private messages were used for AI training purposes, asserting that such data was never disclosed for training these models.
This prompted De La Torre to file a notice of dismissal without prejudice on Thursday, effectively dropping the legal action.
Plaintiff’s counsel acknowledges LinkedIn’s assurance
“LinkedIn’s belated disclosures here left consumers rightly concerned and confused about what was being used to train AI,” stated Eli Wade-Scott, managing partner at Edelson PC, the law firm representing De La Torre, in an email on Friday, as reported by Reuters.
However, Wade-Scott also acknowledged LinkedIn’s explanation, stating:
Users can take comfort, at least, that LinkedIn has shown us evidence that it did not use their private messages to do that. We appreciate the professionalism of LinkedIn’s team.
LinkedIn official affirms data privacy
In a LinkedIn post on Thursday, Sarah Wight, a lawyer and vice president for the company, directly addressed the allegations.
She stated, “We never did that,” confirming that LinkedIn did not use customer’s private messages for AI training.
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