Essential 3 Consulting - Latest Comments

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

James Kabala — Sun, 14 May 2017 19:17:18 -0000

I often get suggestions for former students whom I had years ago, in most cases before I had a LinkedIn account. I never looked them up on LinkedIn. I have never had them in any kind of contact list. I am a bit of an e-mail hoarder who might still have old messages from them in my Inbox, so that must be how LinkedIn knows about them.

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

Kathryn Gorges — Tue, 08 Nov 2016 14:30:21 -0000

I'll have to see if that happens to me -- very annoying. LinkedIn is still not transparent about all this -- in spite of litigation. Not sure why they feel a need to compromise people's requests in order to build a business...

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

Major Gear — Sat, 05 Nov 2016 15:51:44 -0000

No, it just comes back at a later day. I have people that I clicked the X on 10 times just this week , and popped back up on the list again today.

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

Kathryn Gorges — Sat, 24 Sep 2016 20:09:25 -0000

Hi Laurina,

That's very strange... I can only think of a few ways to connect these up: the dating site sells the list but sends it to a company who cleans and fills in the list using web scraping software to put 2+2 together. Or perhaps LinkedIn does that. Maybe they do that connecting up via IP address -- that information is readily available when you visit a site and can be matched up among list records.

All in all, it's disconcerting to be so closely tracked -- and of course, upsetting to see someone you don't want to connect with pop up in front of you and you actually know them.

Thanks for posting your experience,

Kathryn

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

Laurina — Sat, 24 Sep 2016 19:45:29 -0000

I've got suggestions of people met once in real life through a dating website.
The email used for the dating website is different from the one I use for linkedin (and all "working matters"). Anyhow, none of them had my email.
None of them did know my surname.
We have zero connections in common.
My linkedin is not connected to any phone number they might have had (in fact, it is not connected to any number at all).
Why the hell are those 3-years-ago-1-drink-dates-and-goodbye showing up on my suggestions?!
That's wierd, let me tell you.

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

Major Gear — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 21:02:53 -0000

Same. I never want Linkedin in to suggest a contact/connection again even. As in no more 'people you may know' prompts.

Re: Google had it all wrong: Google vs. Facebook

Kathryn Gorges — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 22:41:52 -0000

Google is now dramatically shifting Google+. You can read more here about the direction Google is taking with Google+: http://techcrunch.com/2015/...

What's so far being missed is the value Google+ has for small businesses. Google created a platform that could quickly and easily get small businesses some visibility in search, have a nice looking replacement for a website, and give them brand recognition for posts if they were also posted on Google+.

The free website builders are still outsiders in organic search -- they don't create the results that a good Google+ presence did and still does right now.

Google is missing the boat across a large number of small businesses who need this tool badly -- millions -- if they change the platform so much that it doesn't fill this gap anymore.

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

Ariana — Sat, 10 Oct 2015 20:28:40 -0000

Logged into Google or LinkedIn? I personally searched out a name on Google and now they appear on my LinkedIn "people you may know". I do not have a google account and have never synced my emails with linkedin (a matter of fact, I do not know the person I googled email, telephone number, etc).

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

Mark — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 11:02:06 -0000

Just an observation. LinkedIn has just suggested the points loyalty system for Eurostar trains as a potential person I may know. I have only ever RECEIVED emails from this address, and then only to my Outlook account. I did notice that despite saying "no" when installing the Android client, the "sync with contacts" option was mysteriously checked, but then someone I happen received an email from isn't a contact!

They are clearly deeply harvesting data from my phone and ignoring privacy options I choose!

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

Janet Aldrich — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 08:59:51 -0000

I want to get rid of that box altogether ... how do I do THAT?

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

Kathryn Gorges — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 13:08:46 -0000

I just added the update to this class-action suit saga - a settlement was reached June 12, 2015. Please see above for my latest update.

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

Kathryn Gorges — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 16:55:35 -0000

Hi - if you hover over the suggested connection, you'll see a little 'x' in the top right corner. Click on that 'x' to dismiss the suggestion. That should take care of it.

-Kathryn

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

atlmaddog — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 13:25:30 -0000

So is there any way to remove someone permanently from the display? There's a person who keeps popping up in the first few rows that I absolutely despise (for very good reasons I might add) and I would like to remove this person from my 'list'....additionally is there a way to prevent a particular person from viewing your profile and/or not allow anonymous users to view?

Re: Key Elements for a Successful Home Page

Kathryn Gorges — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 02:02:32 -0000

Thanks Pavlina!

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

Kathryn Gorges — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 01:59:16 -0000

I'm betting some of your friends have uploaded various versions of your emails and they're being correlated. LinkedIn is very good at this game – they're relevancy and business model depends on it. Thanks for commenting!

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

Joe 12-Pack — Sat, 28 Mar 2015 22:24:19 -0000

LinkedIn is flat out scary. I NEVER do anything on it and I am always logged out. I have not updated my profile in 10 years.
I have different email accounts that I use for different programs and different sets of friends (family, work, college, high school, neighborhood, etc.). In addition, the email I use for LI is different from the one I use for Facebook. And still, they find a way to suggest people I know.
Scary.

Re: Key Elements for a Successful Home Page

Pavlina Yanakieva — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 01:27:48 -0000

Great article, Kathryn! Simple framework but it offers a lot of good insights.

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

Kathryn Gorges — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 15:09:26 -0000

Sounds familiar. Did you ever allow LinkedIn access to invite your friends? Did you check in to the B&B when you were there?
It's like LinkedIn has all these threads that get triggered when we do something, talk with someone, or interact online.
Thanks for sharing that this is STILL going on!

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

Kate — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 09:11:11 -0000

I'm still stumped as to how LinkedIn can suggest I connect with someone who runs the B&B in Cumbria that I stayed in 6 months ago even though I don't allow LinkedIn to access either of my 2 email accounts, I'm not on Facebook, I rarely tweet (although I do read tweets) and I'm rarely logged into LinkedIn. Go figure.

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

catherinel — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 19:19:46 -0000

It was sent from gmail. And yah... LinkedIn definitely does see all.

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

Kathryn Gorges — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 14:01:13 -0000

Thanks for your comment!

Was your mass email from inside LinkedIn? or gmail? Maybe you had originally pulled in friends from gmail way back when you joined LinkedIn.

Having LinkedIn re-affirm that it's ok to continue to be connected to an email would be a step in the right direction for them. It's easy to forget what we each did the first moments after joining the site.

And of course, there's the possibility you didn't connect, but LinkedIn sees all... The part I don't like about that is the permission part...and actively being transparent about what I'm permitting. Just creates an adversarial relationship that will make it easy for people to jump from LinkedIn as soon as there's an alternative.

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

catherinel — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 09:10:34 -0000

Great article. I don’t ever remember syncing my email account with my linkedin. A few months ago, I sent a mass email to 700 attorneys. Every now and again I get the “John Doe just joined LinkedIn. Connect with John.” Didn’t really take notice until the other day when I got one for an attorney that represented me in an accident I was in when I was a little kid. Looked at my People you may know page, and noticed that it’s FILLED with attorneys from that one email I sent.

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

Kathryn Gorges — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 22:18:27 -0000

Here's an update to the case brought against LinkedIn for sending multiple emails to people's friends asking them to join LinkedIn: http://www.mediapost.com/pu...
The judge in the case has allowed the case to proceed -- a loss for LinkedIn who was requesting a dismissal. So we'll see where this goes next...

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

Kathryn Gorges — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 17:47:52 -0000

Thanks for the compliment :)
We'll see what happens with the lawsuit...makes me very curious what the underlying technology is that allows that to happen, at the same time as being slightly horrified at the casual use of that technology.

I'll try to keep this updated with new developments.

Re: Who are those ‘People You May Know’ in LinkedIn’s suggested connections?

unbubeebable — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 17:06:43 -0000

Hi Kathryn,...your caricature is nice but it doesn't do you justice.
The only reason I have a gmail account is because I bought a Google Play card and as much as I didn't want to, I believe at the time, I had to sign up with gmail in order to use the Google Play card. That was within the last year. I don't have any contacts in my gmail account that I know of, (never use it), and I know I didn't sync it with my Yahoo account.

What was really creepy about it,...looking up the Principality of Monaco started with an internet creep/troll in Yahoos comment section. My first thought was that this guy had tracked me down and was taunting me with a LinkedIn invitation. It took me awhile to realize the two characters were unrelated but still,...I found your article because LinkedIn had to have been screening my Google searches. Because I haven't yet learned my lesson, I googled "linkedIn spying?" and found your article. I think if LinkedIn has the right to screen your activity on the internet,...that should be an obvious part of the agreement and certainly not in the fine print.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the suit against them turns out and how and why they can do this. This is unscrupulous at best.