Los Angeles, CA: Social networking site LinkedIn Corp, is facing a proposed class action alleging that the "trusted reference" reports offered through the 300 million-member professional social network don't comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) certification and disclosure requirements.
Specifically, the lawsuit, filed in California federal court claims LinkedIn must comply with the same standards mandated by the FCRA for credit reporting agencies who furnish consumer reports for employment purposes. However, the lawsuit contends that the company has filed to do so, by not maintaining reasonable procedures to limit the furnishing of consumer reports containing inaccurate information to potential employers. This could in turn, potentially harm job applicants who are evaluated based on that information.
Filed on behalf of plaintiff Tracee Sweet and others, the complaint states that LinkedIn offers a premium service allowing users to click on a member's profile and select a "search for references" link. The site then generates a reference report containing the names, locations, employment areas, current employers and current positions of all persons in the user's network who may have worked with that individual.
According to the lawsuit, any potential employer using these reports can anonymously dig into the employment history of any LinkedIn member, and make hiring and firing decisions without the knowledge of the member, without any safeguards in place to ensure the potential employer received accurate information.
"Such secrecy in dealing in consumer information directly contradicts the express purposes of the FCRA, which was enacted to promote accuracy, fairness and the privacy of personal information assembled by credit reporting agencies," the lawsuit states.
Further, the lawsuit states that the information regarding employment history, including job titles is supplied by each individual member, and LinkedIn therefore relies solely on each of its members to accurately input and update their own employment history. If a LinkedIn member misrepresented his or her job title from a past employer or included other fabricated employment information in their profile, that information would appear on a reference report for any other LinkedIn member who may have worked at the same employer with that individual.
"Such inaccurate information could lead to negative consequences for any job applicant whose potential employer contacts that reference," the complaint states.
The lawsuit seeks to represent all LinkedIn users in the United States who had a reference report generated on from their profile within the last two years, and a subclass of anyone who also applied for employment through a LinkedIn job posting.
The plaintiffs are represented by Todd M. Friedman of the Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman PC and James L. Davidson of Greenwald Davidson PLLC.
The case is Tracee Sweet et al. v. LinkedIn Corp., case number 3:14-cv-04531, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
