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Posted by ColinWright 21 hours ago

I verified my LinkedIn identity. Here's what I handed over(thelocalstack.eu)
1183 points | 410 commentspage 4
deaux 15 hours ago|
The content is of course 100% true and needs to be repeated over and over, every single day.

The straight-from-LLM writing style is incredibly grating and does a massive disservice to its importance. It really does not take that long to rewrite it a bit.

I hope at least he wrote it on his local Llama instance, else it's truly peak irony.

> Here’s the thing about the DPF: it’s the replacement for Privacy Shield, which the European Court of Justice killed in 2020. The reason? US surveillance laws made it impossible to guarantee European data was safe.

> The DPF exists because the US signed an Executive Order (14086) promising to behave better. But an Executive Order is not a law. It’s a presidential decision. It can be changed or revoked by any future president with a pen stroke.

This understates the reality: the DPF is already dead. Double dead, two separate headshots.

Its validity is based on the existence of a US oversight board and redress mechanism that is required to remain free of executive influence.

1. This board is required to have at least 3 members. It has had 1 member since Trump fired three Democrat members in Jan 2025 (besides a 2-week reinstatement period).

2. Trump's EO 14215 of Feb 2025 has brought (among other agencies) the FTC - which enforces compliance with the DPF - under presidential supervision. This is still in effect.

Of course, everyone that matters knows this, but it doesn't matter, as it was all a bunch of pretend from day 1. Rules for thee but not for me, as always. But what else can we expect in a world where the biggest economy is ruled by a serial rapist.

alansaber 14 hours ago||
Even the title is AI slop. Surprised these slop posts do so well on HN of all platforms but I guess they're just high volume. AI-ese is becoming its own dominant language group at this point
macintux 14 hours ago||
[flagged]
laszlojamf 13 hours ago||
I work in this space for a competitor to Persona, so take my opinion as potentially biased, but I have two points: 1. just because the DPA lists 17 subprocessors, it doesn't mean your data gets sent to all of them. As a company you put all your subprocessors in the DPA, even if you don't use them. We have a long list of subprocessors, but any one individual going through our system is only going to interact with two or three at most. Of course, Persona _could_ be sending your data to all 17 of them, legally, but I'd be surprised if they actually do. 2. the article makes it sound like biometric data is some kind of secret, but especially your _face_ is going to be _everywhere_ on the internet. Who are we kidding here? Why would _that_ be the problem? Your search/click behavior or connection metadata would seem a lot more private to me.
junon 13 hours ago||
> Why would _that_ be the problem

Because it should still be my choice as to what you do with it, which data you associate with it, and how you store it. Removing that choice is anti-privacy.

johndhi 9 hours ago||
It's way less your choice what happens with a photo of your face in pretty much every other situation.

When your face is on your LinkedIn profile, anyone can download it and do whatever they want with it. Legally. Here, the vendor has to tell you how they use it.

junon 2 hours ago||
Someone downloading it randomly is not the same as me volunteering information said random person wouldn't otherwise have and having that information be stored next to my image in a database that can be breached.

All for a checkmark next to my profile that says I'm a real human.

pavel_lishin 13 hours ago|||
> your _face_ is going to be _everywhere_ on the internet.

Why is that your assumption?

laszlojamf 13 hours ago||
Unless you have friends without phones and live in a city without cameras, I think that's a pretty fair assumption
Aldipower 10 hours ago|||
Those records are not connected to your ID and personal data.
18061235 12 hours ago|||
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einrealist 13 hours ago|||
Why not show a summary of who actually received the data? It should be easy to implement. You could also add what data is retained and an estimate of how long it is kept for. It could be a summary page that I can print as a PDF after the process is complete.

I'd consider that a feature that would increase trust in such a platform. These platforms require trust, right?

ataru 13 hours ago|||
The problem with anyone using my face to identify me is that it's hard for me to leave home without it.
laszlojamf 13 hours ago||
yes, that's why people _can_ identify you by it. Identification was the _purpose_ here.
egorfine 9 hours ago|||
> I work in this space for a competitor to Persona

So that means you are participating in the evil that KYC services are.

tryauuum 7 hours ago|||
> your _face_ is going to be _everywhere_ on the internet. Who are we kidding here? Why would _that_ be the problem?

It's a strange logic. "Evil thing X will happen anyway so it's acceptable for me to work in a company doing evil thing X". You should be ashamed of building searchable databases of faces

troupo 13 hours ago|||
> We have a long list of subprocessors, but any one individual going through our system is only going to interact with two or three at most.

So, in aggregate, all 17 data leeches are getting info. They are not getting info on all you users, but different subsets hit different subsets of the "subprocessors" you use.

And there's literally no way of knowing whether or not my data hits "two" or "three" or all 17 "at the most".

> but especially your _face_ is going to be _everywhere_ on the internet. Who are we kidding here? Why would _that_ be the problem?

If you don't see this as a problem, you are a part of the problem

laszlojamf 13 hours ago||
I agree that DPA:s, as they are written today, aren't good. I was just pointing out that the reality probably isn't as bad as the article made it sound.

> If you don't see this as a problem, you are a part of the problem

I think you're misunderstanding me. I'm just saying that there are way bigger fish to fry in terms of privacy on the internet than passport data. In the end, your face is on every store's CCTV camera, your every friends phone, and every school yearbook since you were a kid. Unless you ask all of them to also delete it once they are done with it.

fainpul 13 hours ago|||
But it makes a big difference if some CCTV camera captures my face and comes up with "unknown person" or if it finds my associated passport and other information.

By the way, ever since facebook was a thing I always asked my friends not to tag me in any photos and took similar measures at every opportunity to keep my data somewhat private.

troupo 12 hours ago|||
> I agree that DPA:s, as they are written today, aren't good.

That is, multiple regulations already explicitly restrict the amount of data you can collect and pass on to third parties.

And yet you're here saying "it's not that bad, we don't send eggregious amounts of data to all 17 data brokers at once, inly to 2 or 3 at a time, no big deal"

> In the end, your face is on every store's CCTV camera, your every friends phone

If you don't see how this is a problem already, and is now exacerbated by huge databases cross-referencing your entire life, you are a part of the problem

18061235 12 hours ago|||
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testing22321 13 hours ago||
So they’ll send the data to whichever of the 17 pay them for it.

Obviously our faces are public, but there’s no easy way to tie it to all my PII unless I give it to them.

puszczyk 11 hours ago||
This is a good write-up and useful content, but edit-wise it could be simplified significantly. Additionally, phrases like "let that sink in" are characteristic of poor LinkedIn content, which is a bit of an irony :)
trilogic 16 hours ago||
Great article, thank you.

Hiding all this very important info (which literally affects the users life) behind an insignificant boring click! Even the most paranoid user will give up in certain use cases, (like with covid 19 which even though didn´t agree, you needed to travel, work making it compulsory). Every company that uses deciving techniques like this should be banned in Europe.

afh1 12 hours ago||
>The legal basis? Not consent.

You read and agreed with the terms explicitly stating the data would be used to do those things, and it was not at all necessary for you to do that. What else do you want? It seems like consent isn't the issue. You just don't like what this company does, and still volunteer your data for them to do just that. Now you regret it and write a blog post?

One thing is to be tricked or misled, or for a government to force your face to be scanned and shared with a third party. Another is to have terms explicitly saying this will be done, requiring explicit agreement, and no one forcing you to do it.

rmccue 12 hours ago||
They consented to their data being used to verify their identity, not to train an AI on their data. Each separate purpose the data is being processed for needs its own basis.
jungturk 9 hours ago|||
"Consent" and "Legitimate Interest" are legal terminology - they're two bases defined in GDPR and have different implications and requirements for balancing user and processor interests.

When the author says that Persona claims the "legitimate interest" basis for these data, they're saying that Persona is trying to achieve maximum flexibility for using the data (since "consent" generally requires specific agreement on a specific use for the data, and the burden of maintaining the consent records, where "legitimate interest" does not).

https://www.bulletproof.co.uk/blog/consent-vs-legitimate-int...

wat10000 12 hours ago|||
The plans were on file in a disused lavatory with a sign in the door saying Beware of the Leopard.
SilverElfin 12 hours ago||
> no one forcing you to do it

This is where I disagree. You basically have to use LinkedIn to participate in today’s job market. These large platforms that are protected by network effects should be highly regulated so they cannot abuse your privacy and rights.

p-e-w 12 hours ago||
Most privacy issues with today’s technology industry are caused by companies behaving like private service providers, when in practice they are somewhere between public utilities and government agencies in terms of their necessity and inevitability.

In many companies, you don’t need to bother applying without a LinkedIn profile. You’re not even going to be considered for a position, full stop.

mcintyre1994 4 hours ago||
I have a LinkedIn account and I occasionally have recruiters cold phone call me. They always tell me they got my phone number from LinkedIn. The first time this happened I deleted my number off LinkedIn, which was not shared according to their settings but was being used for 2FA. I still occasionally get these calls, and I'm unsure if LinkedIn is still letting people buy access to my deleted phone number, or if the recruiters are just lying and getting my number from some creepy stolen data service.
Joyfield 14 hours ago||
How did they get your MAC address?
fuzzy2 12 hours ago|
They probably did not. Privacy notices are usually written by non-technical people. They include a lot more than what is actually stored. I’d also be very surprised if they actually interacted with the digital passport (NFC) as part of the process.

I was once part of the process of creating one. After two rounds, business decided too much money is wasted here and all the nonsense will stay. Better to have too much listed than too little.

game_the0ry 13 hours ago||
Off topic -- the design for that blog is really slick. Added it to my "design swipe file."

Less off topic -- there are some black hat marketers that (I think) buy or create verified profiles with attractive women, then they use the accounts for b2b sales through linkedin DMs. I find that amusing. Neutered corpo bois are apparently big poon hounds. Makes sense when you think about it -- that type of guy is craving female attention and probably does not have the balls to do anything in real life, so a polite DM from a fake linkedin thot would be appealing.

flkiwi 13 hours ago||
This is only going to become more common. Companies are implementing checks using similar services (a) to prevent employment scams (where the person who interviews is not the person who works; usually the latter is a low-paid offshore individual) and (b) basic security authentication. It won’t be long before this sort of biometric validation starts showing up to authenticate users on regular websites and similar services, if it hasn’t already. I think the last one I had to do was to authenticate when activating a bank card.
wolvoleo 13 hours ago|
Why would they need to do that? If you start working there you need to show up with your actual ID anyway.
flkiwi 13 hours ago||
Remote, multi location workforces, supervisors and workers thousands of miles apart.
VerifiedReports 7 hours ago|
The link isn't working, but anyone handing over unnecessary data to LinkedIn (AKA Facebook Pro) is probably too gullible to be online safely at this point.
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