Your LinkedIn Data is Training AI: Here’s How to Opt Out and Protect Your Privacy
In the digital age, your professional identity is one of your most valuable assets. The content you create on platforms like LinkedIn—from insightful posts and articles to thoughtful comments—builds your reputation and showcases your expertise. But what if that data was being used for something you didn’t explicitly agree to?
Recently, it has become clear that LinkedIn is using the vast amount of user-generated content on its platform to train its artificial intelligence models. This means your unique insights, professional experiences, and even your conversational style are being fed into AI systems.
While AI development can lead to innovative features, this “opt-out by default” approach raises significant privacy concerns. Your intellectual property is being used to build and refine a commercial product without your active consent. Fortunately, you have the power to take back control.
Why This Matters for Your Professional Brand
Every piece of content you share on LinkedIn is a reflection of your personal brand. It’s the culmination of your experience, knowledge, and unique perspective. When this content is used for AI training, several issues arise:
- Loss of Control: Your professional voice could be assimilated into an AI model designed to generate content, potentially diluting the value of your original thoughts.
- Intellectual Property Concerns: You are essentially providing free, high-quality training data that helps a major corporation develop its next generation of products.
- Privacy Implications: While the data used may be public, the large-scale aggregation and analysis for AI training represents a different level of data usage than simply being visible on a profile.
The core issue is one of consent. Many users are unaware their contributions are being used in this way. Proactively managing your privacy settings is no longer just a good idea—it’s an essential part of protecting your digital identity.
How to Opt Out: A Step-by-Step Guide
Taking control of your data on LinkedIn is straightforward, but the setting is buried within the platform’s menus. Follow these steps to ensure your content is not used for AI training.
- Log in to your LinkedIn account on a desktop browser for the easiest navigation.
- Click on your profile picture (labeled “Me”) in the top right corner and select “Settings & Privacy” from the dropdown menu.
- On the left-hand navigation bar, click on “Data Privacy.”
- Scroll down to the section titled “Generative AI Features.” You may need to click to expand this section.
- Inside this section, you will find a setting related to using your data for training AI models. It might be phrased like, “Use your content and data to train generative AI models.”
- Click “Change” and select “No” to opt out.
Once you have made this change, LinkedIn will no longer use your public data to train its AI systems moving forward.
What Happens After You Opt Out?
A common concern is whether changing this setting will negatively impact your experience on the platform. Based on current information, the answer is no.
Opting out should not limit your ability to use LinkedIn’s core features, such as connecting with colleagues, applying for jobs, or seeing content in your feed. This setting specifically governs the use of your data for AI model training. It does not prevent you from benefiting from AI-powered features on the platform; it only stops your personal contributions from being the fuel.
In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, staying informed and being proactive about your data is crucial. Taking a few moments to check your privacy settings ensures that you remain in control of your professional brand and intellectual property. We strongly recommend reviewing your LinkedIn settings today and sharing this information with your network to promote greater awareness of digital privacy.
Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/10/27/linkedin_ai_profile_scraping/
