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Jess Ma

Professional networking platform LinkedIn has suspended collecting Hong Kong users’ data for its generative artificial intelligence (AI) model after the city’s privacy watchdog raised concerns about the practice by the Microsoft-owned site.
The Office for the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) said on Tuesday that LinkedIn had responded to its inquiries over a default opt-in setting for Hong Kong users’ data to be gathered for purposes such as training AI models “used for content generation”.
“The PCPD received a response from LinkedIn [on Monday] confirming that it has paused any use of Hong Kong users’ personal data for such purposes as of October 11, 2024, while the PCPD’s concerns are being addressed,” a spokesman said.
The social media platform told the Post earlier this month that it had started to inform users of the new feature through multiple channels. It remained unclear when LinkedIn had introduced its new feature.
LinkedIn cited a blog post by its senior vice-president and general counsel Blake Lawit on September 18 stating that the company had added language to clarify how the company would use users’ information to develop the products and services of LinkedIn and its affiliates, which included “training AI models used for content generation (generative AI)”.
Users would have to manually opt out of providing their information to LinkedIn under the policy mentioned in Lawit’s post.
The PCPD earlier advised that Hong Kong users could visit the “Data Privacy” page of their LinkedIn account settings, and then select “Data for Generative AI Improvement” to find the relevant switch to revoke the relevant permission.
The company suspended its collection of British users’ data last month after the United Kingdom’s privacy regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office, voiced similar concerns.
Francis Fong Po-kiu, honorary president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, said there was a risk of user data leaks when tech companies collected such information to train their generative AI models or for other similar functions.
“How would this [personal] data be masked? Would anything be leaked during the cover-up process?” he said.
Data masking refers to a process that protects sensitive information while ensuring it remains usable, through methods such as encrypting or scrambling it.

Fong said the use of generative AI features on social media platforms was a growing trend, with privacy regulators becoming increasingly concerned about the safety of online personal data as companies had more ways to collect users’ data.
“If data is to be collected, it might not be just with words to gauge their writing style, but one’s photos and videos. For the latter categories, it would require a user to hand over their material to the platform,” he said.
Responding to a Post inquiry, a spokesman for LinkedIn said the firm had always used some form of automation for its products and had been clear with users about their choices and the use of their data.
“We believe that our members should have the ability to exercise control over their data, which is why we are making available an opt-out setting for training AI models used for content generation in the countries where we do this,” the spokesman said.
He said demand for AI-assisted writing revision tools was high.
The use of member data for its generative AI model has already been halted in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Hong Kong and mainland China.


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LinkedIn said in September its updated privacy policy included language that indicated users’ data and content would be used by default to train the platform’s GenAI. Photo: Shutterstock

The Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data earlier raised concerns about the social media platform’s default opt-in use of the data. Photo: Jelly Tse

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Ada Chung, privacy commissioner for personal data, reminded LinkedIn users to be aware of the platform’s privacy policy updates. Photo: Jelly Tse

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LinkedIn said it was investigating the incident. Photo: Shutterstock

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Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data earlier raised concerns about the social media platform’s default opt-in use of the data


Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data earlier raised concerns about the social media platform’s default opt-in use of the data.


LinkedIn suspends collecting Hong Kong users’ data for GenAI: privacy watchdog

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data earlier raised concerns about the social media platform’s default opt-in use of the data

Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data earlier raised concerns about the social media platform’s default opt-in use of the data