Privacy Commissioner of Canada Philippe Dufresne welcomes a commitment from LinkedIn to voluntarily pause its practice of using the personal information of Canadian members to train its generative artificial intelligence (AI) models while working with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) to resolve its outstanding questions.
Following numerous media reports indicating that LinkedIn had started training AI models using the data of individual members without having first notified individuals of the practice, the Commissioner reached out to LinkedIn to request information about the company’s training practices as well as how it obtains consent from its members.
LinkedIn subsequently informed the OPC that it has temporarily paused the practice while it works to resolve the OPC’s questions. While LinkedIn indicated that it believed that it had implemented its AI model in a privacy protective manner, the company agreed to engage in discussions with the OPC to ensure that its practices are compliant with Canada’s federal private-sector privacy law.
The engagement with LinkedIn reflects the Privacy Commissioner’s strategic priority of addressing and advocating for privacy in this time of rapid technological change, to support and empower individuals to be active digital citizens, confident that their fundamental right to privacy is protected.
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“I welcome the decision by LinkedIn to pause its practice of using the personal information of Canadian LinkedIn members to train AI models while we work with them to get answers to our questions. Personal information, even when it is publicly accessible, is subject to privacy laws and must be adequately protected. I encourage all companies to apply privacy-by-design principles and establish privacy standards, which will help to promote innovation while also protecting privacy.”
Philippe Dufresne
Privacy Commissioner of Canadahttps://www.priv.gc.ca/en/opc-news/news-and-announcements/2024/nr-c_241210b