LinkedIn—LinkedIn settled $13 million class action over deceptive 'Add Connections' friend-spam emails
LinkedIn settled a class action lawsuit (Perkins v. LinkedIn Corp.) for $13 million in 2015. The platform had harvested new users' email contacts through deceptive interface design and sent repeated invitation emails to their contacts without clear consent. LinkedIn sent up to two follow-up reminder emails per contact, making it appear the user was personally endorsing LinkedIn. The 'Skip this step' option was deliberately obscured with a tiny link placed outside the main UI box. The settlement covered LinkedIn members who used the 'Add Connections' feature between September 2011 and October 2014.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| User Autonomy | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| User Privacy | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.664 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
LinkedIn settled Perkins v. LinkedIn class action for $13 million over deceptive contact harvesting
In 2015, LinkedIn settled the Perkins v. LinkedIn class action lawsuit for $13 million. The suit alleged LinkedIn harvested email contacts through deceptive interface design and sent repeated invitation and reminder emails to users' contacts without clear consent, violating the Stored Communications Act and Wiretap Act. The settlement covered members who used 'Add Connections' between September 2011 and October 2014.