Microsoft is running one of the largest corporate espionage operations in modern history.
Every time any of LinkedIn’s one billion users visits linkedin.com, hidden code searches their computer for installed software, collects the results, and transmits them to LinkedIn’s servers and to third-party companies including an American-Israeli cybersecurity firm.
The user is never asked. Never told. LinkedIn’s privacy policy does not mention it.
Because LinkedIn knows each user’s real name, employer, and job title, it is not searching anonymous visitors. It is searching identified people at identified companies. Millions of companies. Every day. All over the world.
While browser extensions are considered apps under the GDPR, the headline is intentionally misleading. LinkedIn isn’t “Illegally Searching your Computer.” It’s asking the browser for all the info it’s maximally able to give up. We do need to define browser extensions in a way that doesn’t use fear as clickbait to make it sound like LinkedIn has greater access to a device than it really has.
And thanks for the correction on AED, I had seen another analysis a couple weeks back and I didn’t recall correctly what was being collected.