Users take LinkedIn to court over email account hacking

In a development that might cause LinkedIn Corp the world's biggest and most used professional social media site, acute embarrassment, some users have filed a suit alleging the company hacked into their email accounts and downloaded contacts' addresses, Valuewalk.com reports.

In the suit, Perkins vs LinkedIn Corp, 13-cv-04303, US District Court, Northern District of California, LinkedIn Corp, users have accused the company of appropriating their identities for marketing the site without their consent, the report said.

The group has asked a federal judge to stop LinkedIn from continuing with the practice. Additionally the group has also called for compensation for any revenue the company gained by using their identities to market the site to non-members according to the filing from 17 September.

According to the company's claims, the suit was without merit and it insisted there had been no wrongdoing on its part.

Doug Madey, a spokesman for LinkedIn said the company was committed to putting its members first, which included being transparent about how it protected and utilised members' data.

According to the suit, LinkedIn Corp's use of external email addresses as a user name on the site made the ''hack'' possible.

''LinkedIn pretends to be that user and downloads the e-mail addresses contained anywhere in that account to LinkedIn's servers,'' claimed the suit.

''LinkedIn is able to download these addresses without requesting the password for the external e-mail accounts or obtaining users' consent.''

''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,'' says the complaint, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The group of four users acknowledges, LinkedIn asked permission, but maintain it never disclosed it would bombard friends with email invitations, the report said.

According to the complaint, ''LinkedIn's own website contains hundreds of complaints regarding this practice.''

The lawsuit which was seeking class action status had sought unspecified damages.

"LinkedIn is committed to putting our members first, which includes being transparent about how we protect and utilize our members' data,'' LinkedIn spokesman Hani Durzy said in an emailed statement. ''We believe that the legal claims in this lawsuit are without merit, and we intend to fight it vigorously."