Like Facebook, LinkedIn now allowing researchers to mine its data

Professional networking site LinkedIn will now allow economic researchers to mine its vast trove of data. FILE PHOTO | NATION 

In Summary

• In a blog post by chief data officer and VP for engineering Igor Perisic, the firm says “researchers, academics, or data-driven thinkers,” will access de-identified data from LinkedIn “in a way that respects the privacy of LinkedIn members.”

By VICTOR KIPROP
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America professional networking site LinkedIn will now allow economic researchers to mine its vast trove of data, in a controversial move that the California-based company maintains is purely for academic purposes.

In a blog post by chief data officer and VP for engineering Igor Perisic, the firm says “researchers, academics, or data-driven thinkers,” will access de-identified data from LinkedIn “in a way that respects the privacy of LinkedIn members.”

The Economic Graph Research Programme allows selected teams to pursue their research in the fields of analytics, economics, and artificial intelligence, using LinkedIn data, with the aim of “removing barriers to economic growth and creating opportunities for the global workforce.”

“LinkedIn is entrusted with a unique dataset and believes this data should be used to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce,” Mr Perisic said.

However, coming when the dust had barely settled on the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal in which data belonging to 87 million users was illegally harvested and used to shape political outcomes, the proposal sends shivers down the spines of the site’s estimated more than 500 million users.

Facebook is still reeling from scandal in which it has already been fined about $660,000 alongside a barrage of class-action suits after it admitted allowing the now defunct Cambridge Analytica to harvest data.

LinkedIn, however, maintains that the program will not result in theft of user data, as the researchers will only be able to access aggregate, anonymised data that they can only be able to use in a “sandbox” environment — a restricted testing environment where certain functions are prohibited.

Additionally, LinkedIn says the researchers’ proposals and requests to access data will be vetted by its legal and security teams for privacy and security concerns.

There has been growing concerns over the safety of the enormous amounts of personal data at the hands of corporates, amid increased incidents of data breaches around the world, as more hackers and data firms go into the lucrative business of selling data to politicians and businesses for mass marketing strategies.

Last year, digital taxi firm Uber was also sued after it admitted that it paid $100,000 to hackers who had stolen data belonging 57 million Uber users and drivers across the world in order to conceal the data breach.