Last episode of my "Social Media Detox": today we rid of Linkedin!



Why should I delete LinkedIn?

As in the last post, I borrow this post by Richard Stallman, for topics concerning privacy and ethics:

- LinkedIn is trying to have people imprisoned for scraping its site.

- LinkedIn requires you to use non-free Javascript to access the site.

- LinkedIn implements censorship on behalf of the repressive Chinese state.

- LinkedIn makes it "near impossible" to sign up without giving the company your address book. Perhaps this is effective only for users of the most common email services, but that doesn't make it any less nasty.

- LinkedIn claims to own every user's profile, and puts self-serving restrictions on what information users can put in the profile.


But, how useful is LinkedIn really in terms of job search?

Maybe! LinkedIn could been deciding factor in a job appliance: even if you apply with a resume in some company websites or Job portals, there is a high probability that HR will go through your linkedIn profile and even other social media profiles like facebook, twitter etc. to know more about you, and they say that 70% of recruiters have made a decision NOT to hire someone based on information found online.

So, what can i use to replace linkedin?

From my point of view, the answer is simple: create and mantain a good website, with a good "About" page and a complete "Contacts" section.
In doing so, a recruiter is able both to ask you an updated resume or search more info about you.


How to delete my Linkedin account?

As usual, i suggest to download a copy of your data before proceed to the account removal, so:

  • Click the "Me" icon at top of your LinkedIn homepage.
  • Select Settings & Privacy from the dropdown.
  • Click the Privacy tab at the top of the page.
  • Under How LinkedIn uses your data section, click Change next to Download your data. (You may be prompted to sign in).
  • This will take you to the Download your data page where you can select which data you want to download.

Once account backup is done, you can proceed to account deletion:

  • Open the Close Account page.
  • Check the reason for closing your account and click Next. (really?) :-)
  • Enter your account password and click Close account.

If you change your mind, you can reopen your account if it's been closed less than 20 days, simply perform a new login and click on Reactivate button.


References