Microsoft acquires LinkedIn: privacy issues arise

Early this week, Microsoft announced the acquisition of LinkedIn, a professional network with more than 400 million users. This makes LinkedIn to be one of the largest databases worldwide. The acquisition will allow Microsoft to have access to the professional profiles of LinkedIn users.

According to Microsoft´s CEO, Satiya Nadella, this operation will make possible that, for example, LinkedIn´s newsfeed shows articles related to the project the user is working on and on the other hand, Office may suggest professionals in LinkedIn who are experts in the task that is being completed at the time.

However, privacy related issues have aroused upon the acquisition, especially regarding the amount of personal data that LinkedIn processes. Dimitri Sirota, CEO of BigID, a customer data protection company, states that Microsoft should show that this acquisition “can enrich the software offerings from Microsoft in areas such as CRM, communication, productivity, etc.” He also remarks the importance of personal data management, so that there is no infringement of local data privacy legislations.

Software companies, such as Microsoft, gain marketing, sales and intelligence value through these kind of operations, but they also have to deal with privacy risk and compliance legislation.

In this scenario, LinkedIn should continue handling personal data as stipulated in its terms of service. This does not prevent Microsoft from signing a data transfer agreement with LinkedIn in order to have access to the data. Such access would allow Microsoft to analyze the personal data received.

Several IT-Security experts agree on the fact that data privacy and data protection should stay at the foreground.