EDIT 4/22/2025: I just wanted to bring some closure to this post. It did take a few months, however I did hear back from the New York State Attorney General that they have forwarded my complaint to LinkedIn. Within a week, I received another correspondence from both the AG’s Office, as well as LinkedIn about the situation. LinkedIn indicated my account was blocked due to suspicious activity in an automated fashion. Following the AG complaint being received and an investigation, the account has been reinstated. I was able to confirm that my account could be accessed, I re-instated the e-mail address I had initially created for the site, and have followed up by deleting it on my own.
It is really unfortunate that it all had to come to this. The conclusion of this story isn’t one that should’ve been the end result. Now, I can understand support headaches from sites, but telling someone that suspensions are permanent after having to go through the headache I needed to go through to verify I am me, and the false accusations with no accountability, are really just wrong. What I supplied should’ve been enough to get the account unlocked initially if it was an automated disablement for suspicious activity, and accusing me of violating the terms of service for information accuracy and professionalism is incorrect., especially after I call out where the validation is not being done. With that said, I am satisfied with the outcome at this point, and the case is closed.
I am leaving my original post as well as the follow-up edit below, for informational purposes, and so I can share my case with anyone who asks me to sign up and connect with them, or to use LinkedIn Learning. To clarify, per my complaint, I did state I would no longer use LinkedIn going forward due to this experience, so I will do my best to abide by my statement.
EDIT 3/21/2025: Well, just be my luck. Look what news dropped today . LinkedIn is one of the affected tenants according to Cloudsek. I wonder if they have deleted the data like I asked them to. If not, well, they’re on the hook for anything the threat actor might’ve extracted.
Original post below:
Unfortunately, I am writing this post out of frustration. Pardon my tone. The title is accurate.
Over a month ago, I decided to create a LinkedIn Account, after many years of friends, colleagues, and acquaintances asking me if I have a LinkedIn and my response being a simple “No.” Following a lot of peer pressure to make one, I would always buckle and explain my distaste for LinkedIn. From the buzzword-filled posts (about AI these days) to the general principle of just handing your life information over to a Social Media company.
Following a job loss, I spent some time to catch up on life, perform some freelance consulting work, take up photography, and find what it is I want to do next. Not to mention, after working for over a decade without much of a break, I needed the physical and mental break to recuperate. While out performing my freelance consulting work, I naturally, met up with people who wished to exchange business cards, and ask to connect with me on LinkedIn.
I eventually caved. I visited LinkedIn, created an account, and built my profile up within a few hours. Everything seemed pretty fine and dandy. I set up 2FA, and configured the profile in the same way anyone else would.
No more than 24 hours following the account creation, I find myself logged out. I go to log in, and I am greeted with the Account Suspension page. They need me to verify my Identity. OK, so I understand why they may need this. It’s an effort to avoid spam and fraudulent accounts, and to ensure that a site, designed to effectively be a Resume sharing and job seeking website, is only providing trustworthy information to job seekers and business partners. I have no problem with that. What I have a problem with, is what comes next.
In order to verify your Identity, LinkedIn requires one of three mechanisms. You can verify with:
- A Government-issued ID
- A Affidavit of Identity form provided by LinkedIn and signed by a Notary Public
- A work-issued e-mail address (with access to LinkedIn Learning)
Notice which option I chose to boldface here. This is the avenue I wish to take to verify my identity with LinkedIn, to prove I am a real person trying to use an account. I can’t use Option #3 as I lack access to a work-issued e-mail address that qualifies, and I lack access to LinkedIn Learning. As for the Goverment-issued ID option, I have a *strict* policy on not providing Government ID to Social Media entities on the basis of security. In my opinion, using a Government-issued ID for social media services is a misuse of a Government ID, but more importantly, it is a major security risk. It is also less reliable as a security method, because Fake IDs are a thing, and a person can trick camera-based verification services using stolen information. If you don’t believe me, just look at articles such as this one, this one, this one, this one, and this one. Everyone is getting compromised, is misusing data, and everyone is storing data longer than they need to be. Do you think I should trust my ID to a social media company, especially one that will be sending my ID to a third party company for verification? NO! That is how you get an identity, which is used for everything from Tax Return filings, to Bank Authorizations, stolen!
Anyways. Upon logging in, here is what I’m greeted with:
OK great. Let me verify my identity. Notice, the “verifying your identity” (Wayback Machine) link on this page. Next step:
OK, I scan the code. It takes me to a LinkedIn link which directs me to the following page. I select my country and…. I need to send my Identity and possibly a picture of my face to Persona? A company that is prime to be hacked and leak my identity? Where’s the option to use the Affidavit of Identity mechanism mentioned in the Identity Verification document?
So following this roadblock, I spent another twenty minutes attempting to get in touch with LinkedIn. Their support website simply loops me back to the same steps I just tried, and since I cannot log into their website to even open a support case, I am stuck. I eventually use X/Twitter (the only reason I even have an account on that site) to reach out to the @LinkedinHelp account, which was able to get a support case opened for me via e-mail. But not after having to explain my situation at least twice, along with my desire to use a Notary Public instead. After getting this support case open, which was from LinkedIn’s Customer Support portal (Oracle RightNow CRM – Verified the origin was from l****@**.linkedin.com passing DKIM, source from Oracle Cloud, e-mail truncated for some privacy, so no, it wasn’t some fake support scam) explaining myself AGAIN that I do not want to scan my Government ID into a website, LinkedIn’s support finally follows what their own documentation says around verifying with a Notary Public. I am provided a PDF document with a form to fill out and get notarized.
If you haven’t heard of or have used a Notary Public before, here’s a quick ELI5 (Explain Like I’m Five) on what they are. They are persons who are entrusted, and are obligated by law, to act officially on highly sensitive transactions which may pertain to money, real estate, business, law, and other matters which require verification of a person. These are people who must undergo training, and be registered (and routinely renew) with the Department of State, with a searchable identification (example) that anyone can use to confirm they are in fact, a certified Notary Public. These are people who are also trained to spot Fake Identification. As part of getting Notary Public Services, you are required as a person being serviced to fill out an official Notary Public Book, with your Name, Date, Signature, and the reason for requesting Notary services. There is an actual audit trail to go back on in the event of a problem, and if a Notary Public messes up, they are under a tremendous amount of liability. I am also under similar liability as a person receiving such service, in a spot where there are cameras and other mechanisms in place to eliminate falsification. You typically find a Notary Public at locations such as UPS, Government Offices, Lawyers Offices, and at Banks. Places which are knowledgeable in handling sensitive information. Is that clear?
So one would think that if I went through a Notary Public and verified my Identity using an official form from LinkedIn, and provided a mechanism which they can audit my proof in a legal, verifiable manner, that would be enough, right? No. After submitting my Notarized documents back to LinkedIn, I received a reply from their support within an hour saying my account is permanently suspended as they are unable to verify the information I have provided is factual. This was after they claimed that they performed a thorough review of my profile. I immediately replied back calling their bluff, as all of the information on my profile could have been verified with a few contacts. For example, my former employer has a partnership with LinkedIn, and they could contact the HR Department (who manages the LinkedIn presence, which I know for a fact, as I used to support those people) to confirm the information on my profile is accurate. They could contact the LLC I listed on my profile, which is listed in my State’s public LLC registry with complete contact information to the President of the Organization, to confirm with that organization that I am actually a part of the organization, and what I stated I do for them is accurate. The Notary Public certainly couldn’t have falsified their stamp or bearing witness to me, as they would be liable for penalties under law.
None of that was acceptable to LinkedIn. After arguing my case, they eventually changed their tone from being unable to verify who I am despite having all of the necessary information (They didn’t even try – I know for a fact), to saying I had violated their Terms of Service for Professional Conduct around providing accurate information (a false accusation). After rebutting that claim, because I had acted professionally in accordance with the terms, and as polite as possible to them, they then changed their tone AGAIN stating I had violated the Terms of Service multiple times and had received multiple notices. Now, I don’t know what “Violation Notices” means here, but I certainly didn’t receive any notification via the website, via e-mail, or via SMS (another thing they had on file – my number has never been used with LinkedIn before, and has been held since before the site existed!) of violating the Terms of Service. I also couldn’t log in to receive notice of a Terms of Service violation. Perhaps the fact that I kept disagreeing with their assessment is unprofessional, therefore I’ve violated the Terms of Service?
As a final ask of LinkedIn’s support, I explained to them that they are Governed under the laws of California (and now I realize, Delaware) being a company which is Incorporated in Delaware and Headquartered in California. Now, to be clear, I am not a lawyer. None of this is legal advice. I am a much of a dummy as to how the law works and can be warped as anyone else who doesn’t practice law day in, day out, and has passed the Bar. From my understanding, California and Delaware both have Privacy Rules which state that I should be able to request the deletion of my data. I made a simple and polite request – If I cannot regain access to the account, please delete it. I made this request from the exact e-mail which I used to sign in with LinkedIn. The same e-mail which they communicated with me from. I also informed them that I would consider this whole situation to be a theft of information if they fail to honor the request, and the reasoning behind that is simple. If they cannot verify who I am based on all of the information I have already provided to them, then the data is under the jurisdiction of where they are incorporated/established. It must be deleted on request. Any deletion button I would normally have access to is inaccessible because I cannot log into the account, so I can only do the next best thing – Ask support.
LinkedIn once again refused to honor my request, citing the Terms of Service violations. At this point, they have also stated they will no longer talk with me via my support case, or via Social Media. So fine. After they went through all of that, locking the account, demanding me to supply government ID (which is improper use of the ID, once again), not following their own process on how to use a Notary Public, not believing or making any effort to verify any of the Notarized information I provided, only to then accuse me of violating the Terms of Service for things of which I did not do, the end result is one which I hope brings action. I filed an Attorney General complaint with my State, provided transcripts of all support communication, and a summary of what this blog post covers. An Attorney General complaint, by the way, is under similar rules about making false claims when it comes down to the Law, and as part of submitting a complaint, I have to provide personal information such as my address. Things the State can actually look up and confirm. So maybe an AG notice will be enough for LinkedIn to verify it is me…
After filing the Attorney General complaint, I followed LinkedIn’s path in stopping communication; The e-mail address, specific to LinkedIn (because it is wise to use service-specific e-mails in this day and age) which is associated with one of my personal domains, and LinkedIn knows which one if they are reading this post, was modified to reject mail at the SMTP level, and to no longer send mail. The bounceback message (yay for running your own mail server!) is now specifically worded to LinkedIn informing them that the data they have associated with that address is considered stolen, and they should delete all of it. I doubt anyone will see that but, it’s there.
Now, given the current political state of things, the Attorney General is probably not going to get back to me any time soon, if they even do. They are putting out much larger fires. The remedy to this is simple, and is the same exact remedy I asked the Attorney General to send off to LinkedIn. If I cannot have the account back, then please, delete all of the information associated with the account from the service. That means the Resume information, phone number, e-mail, the account including the login hashes, the support ticket along with the Notarized form containing my signature, and anything else that was created with that account. In exchange, I will never use the service again.
If they don’t want to do that, fine. I’m not going to force them, and I really don’t feel like dealing with lawyers and courts. That is dumb, and this whole thing really comes back to common sense. After all, the registration and sign-up was voluntary. They can hide behind their Terms of Service. They are in the wrong, whether they know it or not. I made every effort to use their service honestly. I spoke with a bunch of others in my area about this, and apparently at least one other person has heard of LinkedIn suspending an account in the same manner. But, they all found the situation I had to go through ridiculous, and they could not believe that a Notary Public wasn’t enough proof – they even told me a Notary Public verification is stronger than a Government ID verification via an app, because I must do it in person, and with someone who is legally obligated to not mess up.
I feel this whole thing is ridiculous. Which is why I’m making this post to inform others. If I feel like it, I will post copies of the support transcript. But I’ll leave that private for now. I assume some of this is just a result of highly underpaid, and highly overworked support staff who are not well trained, and a combination of sloppy anti-spam code (dare we call it AI, because it is not) running on their website.
If you have a LinkedIn, delete it now. If your employer wishes for you to use LinkedIn Learning, don’t use it. If you are in HR and using LinkedIn to post your jobs, go set up your own Job site on Workday or your website, or go use Indeed. I have no plans to ever use LinkedIn again (because per the Terms of Service, a permanent ban is a permanent ban!), and I will be providing the link to this blog post to anyone (including future employers) about why I do not use LinkedIn. Finally, if you are planning to get a LinkedIn account, please don’t. If you end up in the same situation, please don’t give LinkedIn your ID…. come on!
