Friday, August 23, 2019

Lynda.com Move To LinkedIn Learning Spurs Complaints Over Privacy Issues

In what looks to be a rough transition for users of Lynda.com, library users of Lynda.com's wide range of educational topics and courses are finding they are running into major privacy issues through LinkedIn's new, forced move of users from Lynda.com to LinkedIn Learning. Accoding to ZDNet, LinkedIn is forcing public library patrons to create a LinkedIn profile in order to access content on the LinkedIn Learning/Lynda.com service, which raises major privacy issues for library patrons. Those patrons are unable to access that Lynda.com content without those profiles. The privacy of library patrons and the books and materials they check out has been a major focus of libraries and librarians; the American Library Association says privacy "is the bedrock foundation for intellectual freedom. It is essential to the exercise of free speech, free thought, and free association". Lynda.com was acquired by LinkedIn in 2015 for $1.5 billion; LinkedIn was subsequently acquired by Microsoft in 2016.