LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner admitted in May that the social networking site was guilty of “
sending too much email” to some users. “That needs to be corrected and improved, and it will be,” he told Buzzfeed.
But it seems those improvements may have come a little too late for the company.
On Friday, LinkedIn announced that it will be paying some of its
members up to $1,500 each after settling a $13 million class-action
lawsuit for sending out too many emails related to one of the website’s
services.
The company made the announcement in an email.
As NBC Chicago reports, the lawsuit was aimed at LinkedIn's “Add Connections” service that lets
users import contacts from their email accounts and send invitations to connect on the site.
The suit claims, however, that LinkedIn repeatedly "spammed" those contacts with unwanted emails .
The way the "Add Connections" service works is that an email
invitation is sent out by LinkedIn to the contact. But if the
person does not respond to the invitation within a certain amount of
time, LinkedIn follows up by sending them two more reminder emails.
According to the lawsuit, LinkedIn members did not consent to the additional emails when they chose to use the feature.
LinkedIn said in an email to users Friday that anyone who used the
service between Sept. 17, 2011, and Oct. 31, 2014, is eligible to file a
claim. The filing deadline is Dec. 14.
The amount that each user will receive will depend on how many
people come forward, but LinkedIn said each person could earn up to
$1,500. (This amount will likely be much less, however.)
(Click here to file a claim. A Claim ID was sent by LinkedIn to users in the email.)
According to KTLA-TV, the
suit was filed against LinkedIn in 2013.
The company did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement, but said
in a statement that it “decided to resolve this case so that we can put
our focus where it matters most: finding additional ways to improve our
members’ experiences.”
LinkedIn says it has revised its disclosures to clarify that two
reminder emails will be sent as part of its "Add Connections" feature.
The company says it will, by year's end, also offer an option to users
to cancel a connection invitation, thereby halting any additional
reminder emails from being sent out.
Source: HuffPost
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