{"slug": "linkedin", "name": "LinkedIn", "category": "networking", "category_name": "Networking and VPN", "description": "Professional social network for career profiles, job searching, recruiting and business connections.", "recommenders": 7, "commenters": 29, "warners": 15, "score": -5.029, "rising": 4.35, "first": "2025-11-18", "latest": "2026-10-01", "why": "HN commenters use it to find jobs and get recruited, to keep in touch with their professional network, and to research sales prospects and competitors.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 6, "neutral": 8, "compare": 0, "warn": 16}, "spark": [0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 3, 0], "listed": true, "loved": ["Finding jobs", "Professional connections"], "caveat": "Feed quality", "short_quote": "used LinkedIn for sales prospecting and it was enormously effective for finding leads", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.linkedin.com", "pricing": "freemium", "aliases": ["LinkedIn"], "verdict": [{"text": "HN commenters use it to find jobs and get recruited,", "cites": [{"id": 756612960, "item_id": 47288310, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47288310", "by": "birdsongs", "date": "2026-03-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "use LinkedIn, apply, apply, apply", "excerpt": "Yeah, absolutely. I came from the US, so it was a bit harder than a Schengen move. Not sure if you qualify for that or need a skills visa like I did. But essentially I applied, a lot on LinkedIn. This started early 2021. Took about 8 months to secure a role, I was at 5 YoE at the time, embedded systems / embedded Linux engineering, and I would say moderately good at my job, nothing spectacular. No FAANG. Oslo was qui", "context": "embedded Linux engineer who moved from the US to Norway", "use_case": "finding a job abroad", "switched_from": "", "story": "Working and Communicating with Japanese Engineers"}, {"id": 742636688, "item_id": 46414793, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46414793", "by": "empiko", "date": "2025-12-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it already gave me huge value back", "excerpt": "My current job cold contacted me via LinkedIn. I use LI minimally, basically only to establish connections with my network, and it already gave me huge value back.", "context": "", "use_case": "professional networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Delete LinkedIn \u2013 you'll have zero fucking regrets"}, {"id": 781581344, "item_id": 48848834, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48848834", "by": "andy99", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "To be fair it\u2019s been pretty useful for me for finding jobs by looking for a relevant person and messaging them.", "excerpt": "To be fair it\u2019s been pretty useful for me for finding jobs by looking for a relevant person and messaging them. I don\u2019t do it very often and have probably > 50% rate of a cold message leading to further discussions (just to indicate I\u2019m not spamming and only doing it when there\u2019s a real possibility of a fit). I agree the actual \u201cjob search\u201d functionality is useless, maybe it has some value for more junior people. Tha", "context": "", "use_case": "finding jobs via messaging", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Content Is Everywhere on Social Media, Especially LinkedIn"}, {"id": 781578800, "item_id": 48848675, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48848675", "by": "skimmed_milk", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I've gotten about 2 interviews via Linkedin", "excerpt": "Where is? I've gotten about 2 interviews via Linkedin, wellfound has little which are the two I know most, Indeed is more useless than even LinkedIn. I used to have decent luck with Who is hiring threads but not recently as there's relatively little for mid level engineers.", "context": "", "use_case": "job search", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Content Is Everywhere on Social Media, Especially LinkedIn"}]}, {"text": " to keep in touch with their professional network,", "cites": [{"id": 798476032, "item_id": 49904752, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49904752", "by": "riffraff", "date": "2026-09-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have zero complaints about it in that form", "excerpt": "That's the reason I use LinkedIn, and I have zero complaints about it in that form. Tho for me is more about keeping the connection rather than see what they work on. OTOH I do see the performative posting \"I bumped my pinky toe on the cupboard and here's what it taught me about leading teams\" and I genuinely don't understand who they're writing for. Isn't it obviously bullshit for everyone? Who cares about that?", "context": "", "use_case": "keeping in touch with colleagues", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Larpmaxxing"}, {"id": 798722832, "item_id": 49920177, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49920177", "by": "DerDerDaIst", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "the only reason I use linkedin is the phonebook aspect. other than that it's useless.", "excerpt": "the only reason I use linkedin is the phonebook aspect. other than that it's useless. in germany one of the anoying aspects is that people turned political on it big time.", "context": "", "use_case": "contact directory", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Larpmaxxing"}, {"id": 742636688, "item_id": 46414793, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46414793", "by": "empiko", "date": "2025-12-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it already gave me huge value back", "excerpt": "My current job cold contacted me via LinkedIn. I use LI minimally, basically only to establish connections with my network, and it already gave me huge value back.", "context": "", "use_case": "professional networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Delete LinkedIn \u2013 you'll have zero fucking regrets"}]}, {"text": " and to research sales prospects and competitors.", "cites": [{"id": 798610640, "item_id": 49913165, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49913165", "by": "PaulHoule", "date": "2026-09-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "used LinkedIn for sales prospecting and it was enormously effective for finding leads", "excerpt": "10 years ago my biz dev and I used LinkedIn for sales prospecting and it was enormously effective for finding leads to put into the top of the funnel.", "context": "worked with a biz dev on sales", "use_case": "sales prospecting", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Larpmaxxing"}, {"id": 787599632, "item_id": 49224977, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49224977", "by": "michelb", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It\u2019s a great additional channel to find recent info on companies and people.", "excerpt": "I use it to keep tabs on competitors, finding out what potential prospects are posting, mapping out relations between companies in our focused industries, etc. Basically for new business signals. It\u2019s a great additional channel to find recent info on companies and people. Sites are usually stale, people post a ton of stuff on LinkedIn. We don\u2019t get our clients through linkedin, but it gives our salespeople better ang", "context": "works in sales/business development", "use_case": "competitor and prospect research", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Feed Blocker"}]}, {"text": " The most common complaints are a feed full of low-effort AI posts", "cites": [{"id": 798598256, "item_id": 49912391, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49912391", "by": "anthomtb", "date": "2026-09-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Then ChatGPT happened and dear lord did LinkedIn ever fall off a cliff.", "excerpt": "LinkedIn used to be a half-decent social network. There weren't too many updates, some were grift of course, but you'd also see former colleagues doing interesting things like startups or academic papers. Then ChatGPT happened and dear lord did LinkedIn ever fall off a cliff. So, so many low-effort, zero-value updates. Far worse than any other social network I use.", "context": "", "use_case": "social network", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Larpmaxxing"}, {"id": 793456080, "item_id": 49591005, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49591005", "by": "wj", "date": "2026-09-06", "stance": "warn", "quote": "LinkedIn is the only social media I use and it is on thin ice.", "excerpt": "I don\u2019t want to read content written by AI. A feature I would like on LinkedIn would be a 100% verified human content flag for users. LinkedIn can then do the scans and flip that to false for any users it catches posting AI assisted content. Let me filter that out of the feed. If we don\u2019t do something to maintain some standard of discourse, we lose intellectually and as a piece of our humanity. LinkedIn is the only s", "context": "", "use_case": "social media", "switched_from": "", "story": "Your intellectual fly is open when you use an LLM to author a post (2025)"}, {"id": 788353936, "item_id": 49272121, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49272121", "by": "game_the0ry", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it became more like tiktok with the short form thirst trap girly boss \"content\" and hollow linkedin influencers posting ai slop.", "excerpt": "I used to have hi hopes for linkedin, that it would replace the resume and make the knowledge labor market more efficient. Instead, it became more like tiktok with the short form thirst trap girly boss \"content\" and hollow linkedin influencers posting ai slop. It just became more noise, but more \"corporate.\" X and insta are my go to social networks now.", "context": "", "use_case": "professional networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn CringeBot 3000"}, {"id": 791703856, "item_id": 49481491, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49481491", "by": "PaulHoule", "date": "2026-08-28", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Overall it is a place that sends the message that \"standards are low here\"", "excerpt": "I love it how a normal social network makes a \"ding\" sound when somebody likes your post but LinkedIn gives you a \"ding\" for just posting anything at all! Overall it is a place that sends the message that \"standards are low here\"; don't know how to write? Microsoft Copilot will do it for you, etc.", "context": "", "use_case": "social network", "switched_from": "", "story": "\u201cIt works better in the app\u201d"}, {"id": 781581344, "item_id": 48848834, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48848834", "by": "andy99", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "To be fair it\u2019s been pretty useful for me for finding jobs by looking for a relevant person and messaging them.", "excerpt": "To be fair it\u2019s been pretty useful for me for finding jobs by looking for a relevant person and messaging them. I don\u2019t do it very often and have probably > 50% rate of a cold message leading to further discussions (just to indicate I\u2019m not spamming and only doing it when there\u2019s a real possibility of a fit). I agree the actual \u201cjob search\u201d functionality is useless, maybe it has some value for more junior people. Tha", "context": "", "use_case": "finding jobs via messaging", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Content Is Everywhere on Social Media, Especially LinkedIn"}]}, {"text": " and account lockouts that demand ID verification.", "cites": [{"id": 787613920, "item_id": 49225870, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49225870", "by": "Marsymars", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "linkedin locked my ~15 year-old account and demands that I upload ID to a 3rd-party for verification", "excerpt": "> Why do people use LinkedIn? I used it to follow Lumon Industries. But at some point when I turned on 2FA linkedin locked my ~15 year-old account and demands that I upload ID to a 3rd-party for verification, which I'm not going to do.", "context": "", "use_case": "following company pages", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Feed Blocker"}, {"id": 764443409, "item_id": 47777713, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47777713", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Linkedin immediately blocked it and asked for verification", "excerpt": "Recently a few days back, I had to verify my Linkedin identity on a new account (I am 17 for context) and I used proton mail and Linkedin immediately blocked it and asked for verification I legally couldn't verify because persona doesn't detect aadhaar card and their support system on twitter/mail whatever was incredibly bad so much so that it felt like copy-paste and I still haven't gotten the card. I have written a", "context": "17-year-old user", "use_case": "professional networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude may require identity verification in some cases"}, {"id": 753735712, "item_id": 47108482, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47108482", "by": "simpleusername", "date": "2026-02-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I suddenly had my account locked down unless I provide my government ID", "excerpt": "I suddenly had my account locked down unless I provide my government ID, just like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44435997. Never did LinkedIn state it was Persona carrying out the validation, and in the email they stated the data would be promptly deleted. I'm now learning this is not true; companies removed from LinkedIn store my data for however long they want. I feel this is solid grounds for a lawsuit, par", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Verified My LinkedIn Identity. Here's What I Handed Over"}, {"id": 753602000, "item_id": 47100125, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47100125", "by": "Kaijo", "date": "2026-02-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I hate LinkedIn but need it for a few things", "excerpt": "I hate LinkedIn but need it for a few things, mostly accessing certain clients and projects as a freelancer. Last October my ISP (Vodafone UK) assigned me a datacenter-classified IPv6 address with 80+ abuse reports on reputation databases, for bots, DDoS, crawlers. Before I realized this I started getting locked out, suspended, restricted from just about every web service I use, having to solve captchas for simple Go", "context": "freelancer", "use_case": "accessing clients and projects", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Verified My LinkedIn Identity. Here's What I Handed Over"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Finding jobs", "summary": "Several commenters landed interviews or roles through applications, cold messages to relevant people, or being contacted by recruiters.", "quotes": [{"id": 742636688, "item_id": 46414793, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46414793", "by": "empiko", "date": "2025-12-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it already gave me huge value back", "excerpt": "My current job cold contacted me via LinkedIn. I use LI minimally, basically only to establish connections with my network, and it already gave me huge value back.", "context": "", "use_case": "professional networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Delete LinkedIn \u2013 you'll have zero fucking regrets"}, {"id": 781581344, "item_id": 48848834, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48848834", "by": "andy99", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "To be fair it\u2019s been pretty useful for me for finding jobs by looking for a relevant person and messaging them.", "excerpt": "To be fair it\u2019s been pretty useful for me for finding jobs by looking for a relevant person and messaging them. I don\u2019t do it very often and have probably > 50% rate of a cold message leading to further discussions (just to indicate I\u2019m not spamming and only doing it when there\u2019s a real possibility of a fit). I agree the actual \u201cjob search\u201d functionality is useless, maybe it has some value for more junior people. Tha", "context": "", "use_case": "finding jobs via messaging", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Content Is Everywhere on Social Media, Especially LinkedIn"}, {"id": 756612960, "item_id": 47288310, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47288310", "by": "birdsongs", "date": "2026-03-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "use LinkedIn, apply, apply, apply", "excerpt": "Yeah, absolutely. I came from the US, so it was a bit harder than a Schengen move. Not sure if you qualify for that or need a skills visa like I did. But essentially I applied, a lot on LinkedIn. This started early 2021. Took about 8 months to secure a role, I was at 5 YoE at the time, embedded systems / embedded Linux engineering, and I would say moderately good at my job, nothing spectacular. No FAANG. Oslo was qui", "context": "embedded Linux engineer who moved from the US to Norway", "use_case": "finding a job abroad", "switched_from": "", "story": "Working and Communicating with Japanese Engineers"}]}, {"label": "Professional connections", "summary": "Valued as a way to stay connected with colleagues and as a professional phonebook.", "quotes": [{"id": 798476032, "item_id": 49904752, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49904752", "by": "riffraff", "date": "2026-09-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have zero complaints about it in that form", "excerpt": "That's the reason I use LinkedIn, and I have zero complaints about it in that form. Tho for me is more about keeping the connection rather than see what they work on. OTOH I do see the performative posting \"I bumped my pinky toe on the cupboard and here's what it taught me about leading teams\" and I genuinely don't understand who they're writing for. Isn't it obviously bullshit for everyone? Who cares about that?", "context": "", "use_case": "keeping in touch with colleagues", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Larpmaxxing"}, {"id": 798722832, "item_id": 49920177, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49920177", "by": "DerDerDaIst", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "the only reason I use linkedin is the phonebook aspect. other than that it's useless.", "excerpt": "the only reason I use linkedin is the phonebook aspect. other than that it's useless. in germany one of the anoying aspects is that people turned political on it big time.", "context": "", "use_case": "contact directory", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Larpmaxxing"}, {"id": 742636688, "item_id": 46414793, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46414793", "by": "empiko", "date": "2025-12-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it already gave me huge value back", "excerpt": "My current job cold contacted me via LinkedIn. I use LI minimally, basically only to establish connections with my network, and it already gave me huge value back.", "context": "", "use_case": "professional networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Delete LinkedIn \u2013 you'll have zero fucking regrets"}]}, {"label": "Sales prospecting", "summary": "Sales and business development users find it effective for generating leads and tracking companies and people.", "quotes": [{"id": 798610640, "item_id": 49913165, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49913165", "by": "PaulHoule", "date": "2026-09-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "used LinkedIn for sales prospecting and it was enormously effective for finding leads", "excerpt": "10 years ago my biz dev and I used LinkedIn for sales prospecting and it was enormously effective for finding leads to put into the top of the funnel.", "context": "worked with a biz dev on sales", "use_case": "sales prospecting", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Larpmaxxing"}, {"id": 787599632, "item_id": 49224977, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49224977", "by": "michelb", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It\u2019s a great additional channel to find recent info on companies and people.", "excerpt": "I use it to keep tabs on competitors, finding out what potential prospects are posting, mapping out relations between companies in our focused industries, etc. Basically for new business signals. It\u2019s a great additional channel to find recent info on companies and people. Sites are usually stale, people post a ton of stuff on LinkedIn. We don\u2019t get our clients through linkedin, but it gives our salespeople better ang", "context": "works in sales/business development", "use_case": "competitor and prospect research", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Feed Blocker"}]}, {"label": "Career visibility", "summary": "Some commenters say thoughtful posting and commenting helps their careers and keeps them visible.", "quotes": [{"id": 798611328, "item_id": 49913208, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49913208", "by": "Quothling", "date": "2026-09-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Maybe it's silly, but it works.", "excerpt": "What? It's how the job market works. It's like 90% connections and bullshit. I use GP somewhat similar to GP. Not as directly, but still targeted at helping my career. I've got a few people who write a lot of buzz that are also actually good for a couple of interesting comments back and forth. Once in a while they'll share someone new and I'll link up with them. This keeps you in the algorithm and it doesn't require ", "context": "", "use_case": "career networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Larpmaxxing"}, {"id": 793394176, "item_id": 49587136, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49587136", "by": "NishanStepak", "date": "2026-09-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use LinkedIn a lot, I think it is a better platform than he is describing.", "excerpt": "LLM writing is boring. Write it yourself. You are more interesting than a LLM because you make mistakes, do stupid things, don't go for the average content, and can be ridiculous in a way that an LLM can never be. LLMs are great for large tasks which would take you several hours or several days to complete that are routine or tedious. Even then, you have to make it human by putting in your own viewpoint and misguided", "context": "", "use_case": "social/professional networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Your intellectual fly is open when you use an LLM to author a post (2025)"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Feed quality", "summary": "Many say the feed has filled with performative posts and AI-generated content since ChatGPT.", "quotes": [{"id": 798598256, "item_id": 49912391, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49912391", "by": "anthomtb", "date": "2026-09-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Then ChatGPT happened and dear lord did LinkedIn ever fall off a cliff.", "excerpt": "LinkedIn used to be a half-decent social network. There weren't too many updates, some were grift of course, but you'd also see former colleagues doing interesting things like startups or academic papers. Then ChatGPT happened and dear lord did LinkedIn ever fall off a cliff. So, so many low-effort, zero-value updates. Far worse than any other social network I use.", "context": "", "use_case": "social network", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Larpmaxxing"}, {"id": 788353936, "item_id": 49272121, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49272121", "by": "game_the0ry", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it became more like tiktok with the short form thirst trap girly boss \"content\" and hollow linkedin influencers posting ai slop.", "excerpt": "I used to have hi hopes for linkedin, that it would replace the resume and make the knowledge labor market more efficient. Instead, it became more like tiktok with the short form thirst trap girly boss \"content\" and hollow linkedin influencers posting ai slop. It just became more noise, but more \"corporate.\" X and insta are my go to social networks now.", "context": "", "use_case": "professional networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn CringeBot 3000"}, {"id": 793456080, "item_id": 49591005, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49591005", "by": "wj", "date": "2026-09-06", "stance": "warn", "quote": "LinkedIn is the only social media I use and it is on thin ice.", "excerpt": "I don\u2019t want to read content written by AI. A feature I would like on LinkedIn would be a 100% verified human content flag for users. LinkedIn can then do the scans and flip that to false for any users it catches posting AI assisted content. Let me filter that out of the feed. If we don\u2019t do something to maintain some standard of discourse, we lose intellectually and as a piece of our humanity. LinkedIn is the only s", "context": "", "use_case": "social media", "switched_from": "", "story": "Your intellectual fly is open when you use an LLM to author a post (2025)"}]}, {"label": "Account lockouts", "summary": "Users report locked or deleted accounts and demands for third-party ID verification through Persona.", "quotes": [{"id": 787613920, "item_id": 49225870, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49225870", "by": "Marsymars", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "linkedin locked my ~15 year-old account and demands that I upload ID to a 3rd-party for verification", "excerpt": "> Why do people use LinkedIn? I used it to follow Lumon Industries. But at some point when I turned on 2FA linkedin locked my ~15 year-old account and demands that I upload ID to a 3rd-party for verification, which I'm not going to do.", "context": "", "use_case": "following company pages", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Feed Blocker"}, {"id": 753735712, "item_id": 47108482, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47108482", "by": "simpleusername", "date": "2026-02-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I suddenly had my account locked down unless I provide my government ID", "excerpt": "I suddenly had my account locked down unless I provide my government ID, just like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44435997. Never did LinkedIn state it was Persona carrying out the validation, and in the email they stated the data would be promptly deleted. I'm now learning this is not true; companies removed from LinkedIn store my data for however long they want. I feel this is solid grounds for a lawsuit, par", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Verified My LinkedIn Identity. Here's What I Handed Over"}, {"id": 764443409, "item_id": 47777713, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47777713", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Linkedin immediately blocked it and asked for verification", "excerpt": "Recently a few days back, I had to verify my Linkedin identity on a new account (I am 17 for context) and I used proton mail and Linkedin immediately blocked it and asked for verification I legally couldn't verify because persona doesn't detect aadhaar card and their support system on twitter/mail whatever was incredibly bad so much so that it felt like copy-paste and I still haven't gotten the card. I have written a", "context": "17-year-old user", "use_case": "professional networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude may require identity verification in some cases"}]}, {"label": "Data privacy", "summary": "Commenters object to personal data being used for AI training by default and distrust how LinkedIn handles their data.", "quotes": [{"id": 767494880, "item_id": 47968430, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47968430", "by": "GodelNumbering", "date": "2026-04-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it is unacceptable to tell a user \"oh we have been using your personal data for 5 months already", "excerpt": "I saw the following from linkedIn this morning > Update to our terms and data use As of November 3, 2025, we are using some of your Linkedin data to improve the content-generating Al that enhances your experience, unless you opt out in your settings. We also updated our terms. See what's new and how to manage your data. Frankly, it is unacceptable to tell a user \"oh we have been using your personal data for 5 months ", "context": "", "use_case": "professional networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn is scanning browser extensions"}, {"id": 753593968, "item_id": 47099623, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47099623", "by": "ColinWright", "date": "2026-02-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I do not trust LinkedIn to keep my data secure ... I believe they sold it.", "excerpt": "I used to have a LinkedIn account, a long time ago. To register I created an email address that was unique to LinkedIn, and pretty much unguessable ... certainly not amenable to a dictionary attack. I ended up deciding that I was getting no value from the account, and I heard unpleasant things about the company, so I deleted the account. Within hours I started to get spam to that unique email address. It would be int", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Verified My LinkedIn Identity. Here's What I Handed Over"}, {"id": 753735712, "item_id": 47108482, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47108482", "by": "simpleusername", "date": "2026-02-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I suddenly had my account locked down unless I provide my government ID", "excerpt": "I suddenly had my account locked down unless I provide my government ID, just like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44435997. Never did LinkedIn state it was Persona carrying out the validation, and in the email they stated the data would be promptly deleted. I'm now learning this is not true; companies removed from LinkedIn store my data for however long they want. I feel this is solid grounds for a lawsuit, par", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Verified My LinkedIn Identity. Here's What I Handed Over"}]}, {"label": "Weak job search", "summary": "Commenters call the built-in job search useless, report low-quality recruiting replies, and one says it posts fake jobs.", "quotes": [{"id": 781581344, "item_id": 48848834, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48848834", "by": "andy99", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "To be fair it\u2019s been pretty useful for me for finding jobs by looking for a relevant person and messaging them.", "excerpt": "To be fair it\u2019s been pretty useful for me for finding jobs by looking for a relevant person and messaging them. I don\u2019t do it very often and have probably > 50% rate of a cold message leading to further discussions (just to indicate I\u2019m not spamming and only doing it when there\u2019s a real possibility of a fit). I agree the actual \u201cjob search\u201d functionality is useless, maybe it has some value for more junior people. Tha", "context": "", "use_case": "finding jobs via messaging", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Content Is Everywhere on Social Media, Especially LinkedIn"}, {"id": 787599632, "item_id": 49224977, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49224977", "by": "michelb", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It\u2019s a great additional channel to find recent info on companies and people.", "excerpt": "I use it to keep tabs on competitors, finding out what potential prospects are posting, mapping out relations between companies in our focused industries, etc. Basically for new business signals. It\u2019s a great additional channel to find recent info on companies and people. Sites are usually stale, people post a ton of stuff on LinkedIn. We don\u2019t get our clients through linkedin, but it gives our salespeople better ang", "context": "works in sales/business development", "use_case": "competitor and prospect research", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Feed Blocker"}, {"id": 735627200, "item_id": 45976700, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45976700", "by": "SilentM68", "date": "2025-11-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "LinkedIn is just another scam site that posts fake jobs just to lure people into purchasing their Pro subscription", "excerpt": "As I am no longer in the business of higher ed, I do not have any links but do have work experience at the CC level as well as an Associate, though no BS. The reason you don't see accusations is because it is kept on the downlow by the powers that be. I can say that in the time that I spent working at a particular CC, multiple CC presidents were kicked out for diverting funds into their private bank accounts. They we", "context": "former community college employee", "use_case": "job search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ford can't find mechanics for $120K: It takes math to learn a trade"}]}, {"label": "Support problems", "summary": "Users describe support that could not fix account or email-verification issues.", "quotes": [{"id": 753641024, "item_id": 47102564, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47102564", "by": "edoceo", "date": "2026-02-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It felt like 1996 levels of understanding.", "excerpt": "I've been getting \"Emails aren\u2019t getting through to one of your email addresses. Please update or confirm your email.\" -- even tho I get messages from them every day. When you press the button to confirm the (working) email it states \"Something went wrong\". It happened last week too, I was able to fix it via their chat-help (human). Yesterday, their chat-help (human) was not able fix it and has to open a ticket. I pa", "context": "pays for LinkedIn Premium", "use_case": "professional networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Verified My LinkedIn Identity. Here's What I Handed Over"}, {"id": 764443409, "item_id": 47777713, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47777713", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Linkedin immediately blocked it and asked for verification", "excerpt": "Recently a few days back, I had to verify my Linkedin identity on a new account (I am 17 for context) and I used proton mail and Linkedin immediately blocked it and asked for verification I legally couldn't verify because persona doesn't detect aadhaar card and their support system on twitter/mail whatever was incredibly bad so much so that it felt like copy-paste and I still haven't gotten the card. I have written a", "context": "17-year-old user", "use_case": "professional networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude may require identity verification in some cases"}, {"id": 753602000, "item_id": 47100125, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47100125", "by": "Kaijo", "date": "2026-02-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I hate LinkedIn but need it for a few things", "excerpt": "I hate LinkedIn but need it for a few things, mostly accessing certain clients and projects as a freelancer. Last October my ISP (Vodafone UK) assigned me a datacenter-classified IPv6 address with 80+ abuse reports on reputation databases, for bots, DDoS, crawlers. Before I realized this I started getting locked out, suspended, restricted from just about every web service I use, having to solve captchas for simple Go", "context": "freelancer", "use_case": "accessing clients and projects", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Verified My LinkedIn Identity. Here's What I Handed Over"}]}], "who": [{"by": "PaulHoule", "context": "worked with a biz dev on sales", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49913165", "date": "2026-09-30"}, {"by": "john-tells-all", "context": "job seeker", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49831202", "date": "2026-09-24"}, {"by": "michelb", "context": "works in sales/business development", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49224977", "date": "2026-08-08"}, {"by": "birdsongs", "context": "embedded Linux engineer who moved from the US to Norway", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47288310", "date": "2026-03-07"}], "tags": ["for job seekers", "for sales prospecting", "for professional networking", "for freelancers"], "use_cases": ["professional networking", "social network", "social media", "job search", "contact directory", "posting technical articles"], "compared": [{"slug": "x-twitter", "name": "X (Twitter)", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "instagram", "name": "Instagram", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "facebook", "name": "Facebook", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [{"id": 793377568, "item_id": 49586098, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49586098", "by": "siskiyou", "date": "2026-09-06", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I worked at LinkedIn (briefly, before retirement) and the product had been useful to me for years", "excerpt": "I worked at LinkedIn (briefly, before retirement) and the product had been useful to me for years before that, so I used it a fair bit but not much anymore since it doesn't serve any of my current needs. There were always awful million-view posts written by humans, useless influencers promoted by the algorithm. That was always garbage, but to an LLM those posts look like success, because engagement, so the LLM tries ", "context": "retired, formerly worked at LinkedIn", "use_case": "professional networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Your intellectual fly is open when you use an LLM to author a post (2025)"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49904314", "title": "LinkedIn Larpmaxxing", "mentions": 6}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47098245", "title": "I Verified My LinkedIn Identity. Here's What I Handed Over", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49585644", "title": "Your intellectual fly is open when you use an LLM to author a post (2025)", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49223475", "title": "LinkedIn Feed Blocker", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48847940", "title": "AI Content Is Everywhere on Social Media, Especially LinkedIn", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49884074", "title": "How Apply for Position?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"warn": 1}, "2025-12": {"warn": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"warn": 4}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {"warn": 2, "neutral": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 4}, "2026-08": {"warn": 4, "recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 3, "warn": 4, "neutral": 2}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 798722832, "item_id": 49920177, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49920177", "by": "DerDerDaIst", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "the only reason I use linkedin is the phonebook aspect. other than that it's useless.", "excerpt": "the only reason I use linkedin is the phonebook aspect. other than that it's useless. in germany one of the anoying aspects is that people turned political on it big time.", "context": "", "use_case": "contact directory", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Larpmaxxing"}, {"id": 798640656, "item_id": 49915041, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49915041", "by": "rbmm", "date": "2026-09-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "a year ago, LinkedIn deleted my account.", "excerpt": "Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. I\u2019m a developer. I\u2019m good at writing and debugging code. But writing articles isn't my thing\u2014even on my native language, not say already on English (despite the language itself isn't the main issue here). I used to post technical posts on LinkedIn. Not in the style of The Old New Thing, but just about things that were somewhat interesting and not widely known. The post", "context": "developer who wrote technical posts", "use_case": "posting technical articles", "switched_from": "", "story": "How Apply for Position?"}, {"id": 798611328, "item_id": 49913208, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49913208", "by": "Quothling", "date": "2026-09-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Maybe it's silly, but it works.", "excerpt": "What? It's how the job market works. It's like 90% connections and bullshit. I use GP somewhat similar to GP. Not as directly, but still targeted at helping my career. I've got a few people who write a lot of buzz that are also actually good for a couple of interesting comments back and forth. Once in a while they'll share someone new and I'll link up with them. This keeps you in the algorithm and it doesn't require ", "context": "", "use_case": "career networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Larpmaxxing"}, {"id": 798610640, "item_id": 49913165, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49913165", "by": "PaulHoule", "date": "2026-09-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "used LinkedIn for sales prospecting and it was enormously effective for finding leads", "excerpt": "10 years ago my biz dev and I used LinkedIn for sales prospecting and it was enormously effective for finding leads to put into the top of the funnel.", "context": "worked with a biz dev on sales", "use_case": "sales prospecting", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Larpmaxxing"}, {"id": 798610128, "item_id": 49913133, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49913133", "by": "PaulHoule", "date": "2026-09-30", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use LinkedIn as another place to post my photos.", "excerpt": "I use LinkedIn as another place to post my photos. My goal is to post 5 a day though sometimes I do more and sometimes I do less. I wouldn't really be doing it just to post to LinkedIn but since I am to posting 6 other social sites I am already doing all the work. The average visibility I get is atrocious but once in a while I get a hit and get 500+ views. Nobody would accuse me of performative normality https://www.", "context": "", "use_case": "posting photos", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Larpmaxxing"}, {"id": 798598256, "item_id": 49912391, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49912391", "by": "anthomtb", "date": "2026-09-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Then ChatGPT happened and dear lord did LinkedIn ever fall off a cliff.", "excerpt": "LinkedIn used to be a half-decent social network. There weren't too many updates, some were grift of course, but you'd also see former colleagues doing interesting things like startups or academic papers. Then ChatGPT happened and dear lord did LinkedIn ever fall off a cliff. So, so many low-effort, zero-value updates. Far worse than any other social network I use.", "context": "", "use_case": "social network", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Larpmaxxing"}, {"id": 798476032, "item_id": 49904752, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49904752", "by": "riffraff", "date": "2026-09-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have zero complaints about it in that form", "excerpt": "That's the reason I use LinkedIn, and I have zero complaints about it in that form. Tho for me is more about keeping the connection rather than see what they work on. OTOH I do see the performative posting \"I bumped my pinky toe on the cupboard and here's what it taught me about leading teams\" and I genuinely don't understand who they're writing for. Isn't it obviously bullshit for everyone? Who cares about that?", "context": "", "use_case": "keeping in touch with colleagues", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Larpmaxxing"}, {"id": 797299232, "item_id": 49831202, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49831202", "by": "john-tells-all", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I've switched to finding companies + jobs on LI, then applying directly on the company's website.", "excerpt": "Did you apply directly on LinkedIn? I've switched to finding companies + jobs on LI, then applying directly on the company's website.", "context": "job seeker", "use_case": "finding companies and jobs", "switched_from": "", "story": "28% of job postings on company career sites have been open over 90 days"}, {"id": 793746273, "item_id": 49609142, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49609142", "by": "itake", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I\u2019m done with LinkedIn.", "excerpt": "It isn\u2019t an alternative to Instagram, it\u2019s a Safari extension for instagram.com. I would love to delete Instagram, but I don\u2019t know how to stay connected with the people I meet any other way. Whatsapp lacks stories, which organically rekindle conversations. I\u2019m done with LinkedIn. Fb is too difficult to find people since it lacks usernames and isolate profiles, geographically", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Logistics of Restraint"}, {"id": 793456080, "item_id": 49591005, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49591005", "by": "wj", "date": "2026-09-06", "stance": "warn", "quote": "LinkedIn is the only social media I use and it is on thin ice.", "excerpt": "I don\u2019t want to read content written by AI. A feature I would like on LinkedIn would be a 100% verified human content flag for users. LinkedIn can then do the scans and flip that to false for any users it catches posting AI assisted content. Let me filter that out of the feed. If we don\u2019t do something to maintain some standard of discourse, we lose intellectually and as a piece of our humanity. LinkedIn is the only s", "context": "", "use_case": "social media", "switched_from": "", "story": "Your intellectual fly is open when you use an LLM to author a post (2025)"}, {"id": 793394176, "item_id": 49587136, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49587136", "by": "NishanStepak", "date": "2026-09-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use LinkedIn a lot, I think it is a better platform than he is describing.", "excerpt": "LLM writing is boring. Write it yourself. You are more interesting than a LLM because you make mistakes, do stupid things, don't go for the average content, and can be ridiculous in a way that an LLM can never be. LLMs are great for large tasks which would take you several hours or several days to complete that are routine or tedious. Even then, you have to make it human by putting in your own viewpoint and misguided", "context": "", "use_case": "social/professional networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Your intellectual fly is open when you use an LLM to author a post (2025)"}, {"id": 791703856, "item_id": 49481491, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49481491", "by": "PaulHoule", "date": "2026-08-28", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Overall it is a place that sends the message that \"standards are low here\"", "excerpt": "I love it how a normal social network makes a \"ding\" sound when somebody likes your post but LinkedIn gives you a \"ding\" for just posting anything at all! Overall it is a place that sends the message that \"standards are low here\"; don't know how to write? Microsoft Copilot will do it for you, etc.", "context": "", "use_case": "social network", "switched_from": "", "story": "\u201cIt works better in the app\u201d"}, {"id": 788353936, "item_id": 49272121, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49272121", "by": "game_the0ry", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it became more like tiktok with the short form thirst trap girly boss \"content\" and hollow linkedin influencers posting ai slop.", "excerpt": "I used to have hi hopes for linkedin, that it would replace the resume and make the knowledge labor market more efficient. Instead, it became more like tiktok with the short form thirst trap girly boss \"content\" and hollow linkedin influencers posting ai slop. It just became more noise, but more \"corporate.\" X and insta are my go to social networks now.", "context": "", "use_case": "professional networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn CringeBot 3000"}, {"id": 787613920, "item_id": 49225870, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49225870", "by": "Marsymars", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "linkedin locked my ~15 year-old account and demands that I upload ID to a 3rd-party for verification", "excerpt": "> Why do people use LinkedIn? I used it to follow Lumon Industries. But at some point when I turned on 2FA linkedin locked my ~15 year-old account and demands that I upload ID to a 3rd-party for verification, which I'm not going to do.", "context": "", "use_case": "following company pages", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Feed Blocker"}, {"id": 787599632, "item_id": 49224977, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49224977", "by": "michelb", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It\u2019s a great additional channel to find recent info on companies and people.", "excerpt": "I use it to keep tabs on competitors, finding out what potential prospects are posting, mapping out relations between companies in our focused industries, etc. Basically for new business signals. It\u2019s a great additional channel to find recent info on companies and people. Sites are usually stale, people post a ton of stuff on LinkedIn. We don\u2019t get our clients through linkedin, but it gives our salespeople better ang", "context": "works in sales/business development", "use_case": "competitor and prospect research", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn Feed Blocker"}, {"id": 786180112, "item_id": 49136257, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49136257", "by": "sodapopcan", "date": "2026-08-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Please just don't use LinkedIn and maybe LinkedIn will die.", "excerpt": "Agreed. Please just don't use LinkedIn and maybe LinkedIn will die. For the times I have to use it, I use a browser plugin to hide the feed.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Fired My AI Assitant"}, {"id": 785789554, "item_id": 49111847, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49111847", "by": "ghaff", "date": "2026-07-30", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "LinkedIn even less so", "excerpt": "I used to do a lot of chit-chat with folks I knew on Twitter during the work day. After Musk largely torched it and a lot of people just decided they didn't need that kind of social media any longer, that channel largely went away. I use Facebook some but not the same and LinkedIn even less so.", "context": "", "use_case": "social media", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Lost Civic Life of Movie Rental Stores"}, {"id": 781581344, "item_id": 48848834, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48848834", "by": "andy99", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "To be fair it\u2019s been pretty useful for me for finding jobs by looking for a relevant person and messaging them.", "excerpt": "To be fair it\u2019s been pretty useful for me for finding jobs by looking for a relevant person and messaging them. I don\u2019t do it very often and have probably > 50% rate of a cold message leading to further discussions (just to indicate I\u2019m not spamming and only doing it when there\u2019s a real possibility of a fit). I agree the actual \u201cjob search\u201d functionality is useless, maybe it has some value for more junior people. Tha", "context": "", "use_case": "finding jobs via messaging", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Content Is Everywhere on Social Media, Especially LinkedIn"}, {"id": 781578800, "item_id": 48848675, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48848675", "by": "skimmed_milk", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I've gotten about 2 interviews via Linkedin", "excerpt": "Where is? I've gotten about 2 interviews via Linkedin, wellfound has little which are the two I know most, Indeed is more useless than even LinkedIn. I used to have decent luck with Who is hiring threads but not recently as there's relatively little for mid level engineers.", "context": "", "use_case": "job search", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Content Is Everywhere on Social Media, Especially LinkedIn"}, {"id": 780800352, "item_id": 48800022, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48800022", "by": "dotcoma", "date": "2026-07-05", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I still have a LinkedIn account (I login once or twice s week)", "excerpt": "Maybe so, or sadly so, for many people. I still have a LinkedIn account (I login once or twice s week), a Twitter account (once a week) and a bsky account (once a month). I can\u2019t believe I used to have Facebook\u2019s app on my phone.", "context": "", "use_case": "social networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Are you guys happy with existing social networkin apps?"}, {"id": 767494880, "item_id": 47968430, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47968430", "by": "GodelNumbering", "date": "2026-04-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it is unacceptable to tell a user \"oh we have been using your personal data for 5 months already", "excerpt": "I saw the following from linkedIn this morning > Update to our terms and data use As of November 3, 2025, we are using some of your Linkedin data to improve the content-generating Al that enhances your experience, unless you opt out in your settings. We also updated our terms. See what's new and how to manage your data. Frankly, it is unacceptable to tell a user \"oh we have been using your personal data for 5 months ", "context": "", "use_case": "professional networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "LinkedIn is scanning browser extensions"}, {"id": 767204944, "item_id": 47950309, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47950309", "by": "zeafoamrun", "date": "2026-04-29", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I really hate it but it has made a direct positive material impact in my life", "excerpt": "I really like the concept of federated social networks and it's the next thing I want to get into. Maybe even work on it as a job but I doubt there are any that pay well. I think sovereignty over what information you consume is more important than ever. I had to use Twitter for work to get news about <topic> but the amount of virulent propaganda, totally unrelated to <topic>, that you end up absorbing is unforgivable", "context": "", "use_case": "professional networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tangled \u2013 We need a federation of forges"}, {"id": 764443409, "item_id": 47777713, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47777713", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Linkedin immediately blocked it and asked for verification", "excerpt": "Recently a few days back, I had to verify my Linkedin identity on a new account (I am 17 for context) and I used proton mail and Linkedin immediately blocked it and asked for verification I legally couldn't verify because persona doesn't detect aadhaar card and their support system on twitter/mail whatever was incredibly bad so much so that it felt like copy-paste and I still haven't gotten the card. I have written a", "context": "17-year-old user", "use_case": "professional networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude may require identity verification in some cases"}, {"id": 756612960, "item_id": 47288310, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47288310", "by": "birdsongs", "date": "2026-03-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "use LinkedIn, apply, apply, apply", "excerpt": "Yeah, absolutely. I came from the US, so it was a bit harder than a Schengen move. Not sure if you qualify for that or need a skills visa like I did. But essentially I applied, a lot on LinkedIn. This started early 2021. Took about 8 months to secure a role, I was at 5 YoE at the time, embedded systems / embedded Linux engineering, and I would say moderately good at my job, nothing spectacular. No FAANG. Oslo was qui", "context": "embedded Linux engineer who moved from the US to Norway", "use_case": "finding a job abroad", "switched_from": "", "story": "Working and Communicating with Japanese Engineers"}, {"id": 753735712, "item_id": 47108482, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47108482", "by": "simpleusername", "date": "2026-02-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I suddenly had my account locked down unless I provide my government ID", "excerpt": "I suddenly had my account locked down unless I provide my government ID, just like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44435997. Never did LinkedIn state it was Persona carrying out the validation, and in the email they stated the data would be promptly deleted. I'm now learning this is not true; companies removed from LinkedIn store my data for however long they want. I feel this is solid grounds for a lawsuit, par", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Verified My LinkedIn Identity. Here's What I Handed Over"}, {"id": 753641024, "item_id": 47102564, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47102564", "by": "edoceo", "date": "2026-02-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It felt like 1996 levels of understanding.", "excerpt": "I've been getting \"Emails aren\u2019t getting through to one of your email addresses. Please update or confirm your email.\" -- even tho I get messages from them every day. When you press the button to confirm the (working) email it states \"Something went wrong\". It happened last week too, I was able to fix it via their chat-help (human). Yesterday, their chat-help (human) was not able fix it and has to open a ticket. I pa", "context": "pays for LinkedIn Premium", "use_case": "professional networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Verified My LinkedIn Identity. Here's What I Handed Over"}, {"id": 753602000, "item_id": 47100125, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47100125", "by": "Kaijo", "date": "2026-02-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I hate LinkedIn but need it for a few things", "excerpt": "I hate LinkedIn but need it for a few things, mostly accessing certain clients and projects as a freelancer. Last October my ISP (Vodafone UK) assigned me a datacenter-classified IPv6 address with 80+ abuse reports on reputation databases, for bots, DDoS, crawlers. Before I realized this I started getting locked out, suspended, restricted from just about every web service I use, having to solve captchas for simple Go", "context": "freelancer", "use_case": "accessing clients and projects", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Verified My LinkedIn Identity. Here's What I Handed Over"}, {"id": 753593968, "item_id": 47099623, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47099623", "by": "ColinWright", "date": "2026-02-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I do not trust LinkedIn to keep my data secure ... I believe they sold it.", "excerpt": "I used to have a LinkedIn account, a long time ago. To register I created an email address that was unique to LinkedIn, and pretty much unguessable ... certainly not amenable to a dictionary attack. I ended up deciding that I was getting no value from the account, and I heard unpleasant things about the company, so I deleted the account. Within hours I started to get spam to that unique email address. It would be int", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Verified My LinkedIn Identity. Here's What I Handed Over"}, {"id": 742636688, "item_id": 46414793, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46414793", "by": "empiko", "date": "2025-12-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it already gave me huge value back", "excerpt": "My current job cold contacted me via LinkedIn. I use LI minimally, basically only to establish connections with my network, and it already gave me huge value back.", "context": "", "use_case": "professional networking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Delete LinkedIn \u2013 you'll have zero fucking regrets"}, {"id": 741775584, "item_id": 46360974, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46360974", "by": "arminiusreturns", "date": "2025-12-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Linkedin exploits the network effects of gui-ninjas under stockholm syndrome to an anti-user service.", "excerpt": "Social gates, not tech ones. Linkedin exploits the network effects of gui-ninjas under stockholm syndrome to an anti-user service. The same reason you get wierd looks when you say you don't facebook sometimes. It's like existing outside the control or influence of some $manyuser $app/$website is unthinkable to those who exist within the prison ecosystems. I am a greybeard linux admin moonlighting in windows world, an", "context": "greybeard Linux admin", "use_case": "professional social network", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Why isn't there competition to LinkedIn yet?"}, {"id": 735627200, "item_id": 45976700, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45976700", "by": "SilentM68", "date": "2025-11-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "LinkedIn is just another scam site that posts fake jobs just to lure people into purchasing their Pro subscription", "excerpt": "As I am no longer in the business of higher ed, I do not have any links but do have work experience at the CC level as well as an Associate, though no BS. The reason you don't see accusations is because it is kept on the downlow by the powers that be. I can say that in the time that I spent working at a particular CC, multiple CC presidents were kicked out for diverting funds into their private bank accounts. They we", "context": "former community college employee", "use_case": "job search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ford can't find mechanics for $120K: It takes math to learn a trade"}]}