NEWS31 March 2011
US— Business networking site Linkedin is being sued for allegedly violating user privacy by disclosing unique user IDs in the referrer headers it sends to third party ad networks and web measurement firms.
Kevin Low, a Linkedin user living in San Francisco, claims that user IDs are passed on in such a way as to make it possible for these third parties to associate a particular user with a particular tracking cookie – thus removing their anonymity.
His complaint was filed last week in the District Court for northern California. Linkedin has yet to respond formally to the action but a spokesman told US media trade title Mediapost that it believes the case lacks merit.
Facebook has been similarly sued over an alleged leak of users’ identities via referrer headers.