Chicago, IL: LinkedIn Corp is facing an internet privacy class action lawsuit resulting from a recent hacking that compromised some 6.5 million registered users' passwords, which reportedly is less than 5 percent of LinkedIn' user base.
The lawsuit was filed by Katie Szpyrka, who has been a registered account holder with LinkedIn since 2010, and who paid $26.95 per month to upgrade to a "premium" LinkedIn account.
The lawsuit claims LinkedIn "failed to properly safeguard its users' digitally stored personally identifiable information including email addresses, passwords, and login credentials."The lawsuit also states, "Through its Privacy Policy, LinkedIn promises its users that 'all information that [they] provide [to LinkedIn] will be protected with industry standard protocols and technology. In direct contradiction to this promise, LinkedIn failed to comply with basic industry standards by maintaining millions of users' PII in its servers' databases in a weak encryption format, and without implementing other crucial security measures." This, the suit alleges, is in violation of the company' user agreement and privacy policy.
The lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California for plaintiff Szpyrka and others similarly situated, by the law firm of Edelson McGuire.
