shortformblog:

Security warning: LinkedIn facing privacy issues on two fronts today

First off: If you’re a LinkedIn user, change your password, stat. The company reportedly suffered a major security breach this morning and 6.5 million passwords are currently floating around the Internet in encrypted form — but that doesn’t mean hackers aren’t trying to break the encryption. So don’t screw around. Log into LinkedIn and change it — ESPECIALLY if you use that password other places. (If you do, change it in those places, too.) But that’s not the only privacy fail the company’s having this morning. Here’s the other:

• cause A new LinkedIn mobile app feature allows the company to access your personal notes from your iOS calendar to sync them with your LinkedIn account ahead of meetings — a feature which is opt-in, but drew security users’ scrutiny because it was accessing calendar information and transmitting it in unencrypted form.
• response While the company is attempting to address privacy concerns, it insists the feature is useful and well-intentioned: “We hope you try it out. If at any time you decide it’s not for you then you can always go to the mobile apps settings page to turn off the calendar feature,” said Joff Redfern, the Mobile Product Head at LinkedIn. source

(photo via TheSeafarer)

Follow ShortFormBlog: Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook

(via crankyasshuladancer)