Los Angeles, CA: LinkedIn, the professional networking service, is facing an Internet privacy class action lawsuit alleging the company hacked into its subscribers' email accounts without consent, and harvested the email addresses.
Filed by four LinkedIn users in the in US District Court in San Jose, the lawsuit contends "The hacking of the users' email accounts and downloading of all email addresses associated with that user's account is done without clearly notifying the user or obtaining his or her consent."
The four plaintiffs do acknowledge that LinkedIn asked permission, however they allege the networking site never disclosed it would inundate the plaintiffs' friends with email invitations. "LinkedIn' own website contains hundreds of complaints regarding this practice,"the complaint states.
The plaintiffs are asking that LinkedIn be barred from the practice and turn over any revenue that results from it. The lawsuit is seeking class action status and unspecified damages.
