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Back in April, LinkedIn added an opt-in feature to its iOS andAndroid apps that uses calendar event details to identify theLinkedIn profiles of individuals with whom users of the apps arescheduled to meet. Researchers from security vendor Skycure Security have analyzed howthis feature works and found that LinkedIn's iOS app doesn't onlyinspect calendar meeting details locally on the device, butactually sends the information back to LinkedIn's servers. This poses a serious privacy risk because some of the collectedinformation can be highly sensitive. For example, calendar meetingnotes tend to include conference call numbers and passcodes,Skycure co-founder and CEO Yair Amit said in a blog post on Wednesday. "In order to implement their acclaimed feature of synchronizingbetween the people you meet and their LinkedIn profile, allLinkedIn need is unique identifiers of the people you are going tomeet with, not all the details of your planned meetings," Amitsaid. "Details such as meeting schedule, location, title or notes,which tend to be sensitive in particular for organizations, areirrelevant for this task." In addition, the LinkedIn app does not provide clear notificationto users that their calendar event details are being sent fromtheir devices. This is possibly a violation of Apple's privacyguidelines which state that apps can't transmit user data withoutobtaining user consent and providing information to users about howand where this data will be used, Amit said. Joff Redfern, LinkedIn's head of mobile products, confirmed thatthe company's mobile apps send complete meeting details from users'calendars back to its servers, if they opted into the feature. Thatinformation is used to make LinkedIn's profile matching algorithmincreasingly smarter, Redfern said in a blog post on Wednesday. Calendar data is sent to LinkedIn's servers over Secure SocketLayer (SSL) connections, but the data is not stored on the serversand is not used for purposes other than profile matching, Redfernsaid. In light of the privacy concerns raised by Skycure's researchers,LinkedIn has decided to stop collecting calendar meeting notes andto add a "learn more" link inside its mobile apps to providedetailed information about how calendar data is being used. "These improvements are live on Android now and have been submittedto the Apple store and will be available shortly," Redfern said. Users who previously enabled the calendar integration feature, butno longer want their calendar details to be shared with LinkedIn,can turn the feature off from the app's settings. The calendarintegration will remain an opt-in feature, Redfern said. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as 5V 40A LED Display Power Supply , 3W / 4W Triac Dimmable Power Manufacturer for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Rechargeable Power Bank.
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