Not only is Linkedin OK with disinformation, thereby making itself complicit to fraud, it turns out verification isn’t that simple.
I’ve said many times that I think most “apps” are just web browsers limited to a single site, but, in the interests of greater visibility, I relented and downloaded the Linkedin app.
Like most apps, it offers no additional functionality to the website, but for verification—allegedly.
I followed the instructions to the letter and got this message:
after which this page just hung round for minutes. After half an hour I exited.
It doesn’t really do that much. For instance, here’s the feed:
It does eventually show up but the main website is faster.
It’s that great Microsoft programming we’ve been hearing so much about. The app has been deleted. I don’t need another thing on my phone tracking me, not least a company that refuses to do right by the truth.
How refreshing to find Ed Zitron, whose pieces I have read and enjoyed over the years, take aim at the tech industry, answering why ‘everything digital feels so broken, and why it seems to keep getting worse’.
Ed is far more connected to the tech world than me and gives excellent examples, including a few that I’ve also covered (e.g. Google search intentionally worsening in 2019).
He wrote:
I’m not writing this to complain, but because I believe—as I hinted at a few weeks ago—that we are in the midst of the largest-scale ecological disaster of our time, because almost every single interaction with technology, which is required to live in modern society, has become actively adversarial to the user. These issues hit everything we do, all the time, a constant onslaught of interference, and I believe it’s so much bigger than just social media and algorithms—though they’re a big part of it, of course.
Just before that, he writes:
Why does every website feel different, and why do some crash randomly or make your phone burn your hand? It’s because every publisher has pumped their sites full of as much ad tracking software as possible as a means of monetizing every single user in as many ways as possible, helping ads follow you across the entire internet. And why does everybody need your email? Because your inbox is one of the few places that advertisers haven’t found a consistent way to penetrate.
And here I am, thinking: I don’t ask for your email addresses. The only time I get them is when you intentionally send it to me, either through a feedback form (where I promise you don’t get opted in to an email list unless you ask otherwise), or through email. I don’t add any ad tracking, though I know the ad networks we work with do. Instead, I give you links in our T&Cs to get trackers off your back. If this saves the planet even by a fraction, by reducing power usage, then it’s a little thing that I can help with.
So why not, in 2025, go the whole hog and stop serving ads with tracking altogether?
It will mean we’ll have to hunt for an ad network that doesn’t track. So far I’ve not found a single one, with one exception, but those particular folks don’t want lifestyle mags, only tech sites. But I owe readers way more than I owe big corporations. You took the time to visit our place. And while you expect snooping, because every other site snoops, I want you to feel assured that we don’t.
It’s time to begin some pushback from the publishing industry, as there’s doubtless consumer demand for this approach—and if the market is fair then someone will emerge to be that non-tracking ad network. I’ll be fascinated to watch this space, though once again I am concerned I’m running five to ten years ahead of the mainstream. I hope not. Ed would likely agree this is a good thing, but then, Ed also runs years ahead of mainstream thought.
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That’s interesting. I downloaded LI to my smartphone about 6 or 7 years ago. I’ve never had any problems with it, which is the good part. The bad… it’s not as easy to navigate as the website is (they need to stop changing things around; it’s royal mess now) and that’s problematic. I rarely open the app these days because I didn’t download apps to be hard to use.
Happy holidays to you, Mitch.
There are very few “apps” for websites that don’t come across as web browsers that happen to be limited to that single website, so I never saw the point of these. But as far as verification goes, it is impossible (at least in this country) to use.
I agree: if there is to be an app, there must be some utility beyond the basic website. I had hoped Linkedin’s would be the verification, but as that doesn’t work, then it offers naught. Better to just use the regular website.