‘Cash grab’

Billy Odell Tucker-Robinson Founder & Host — Banking With Billy Network • Intelligence Network • Data Science • AI Research • World News
Published: 2026-09-27T01:11:06.910Z • Permanent link

Regulators in the United States and Australia have been investigating major financial institutions for allegedly misleading job applicants about the role of their data. A complaint letter seen by Guardian Australia reveals that many applicants left feeling "used, lied to, misled and gaslit" after being informed that their personal data would be used for purposes beyond their initial job application.

The investigation centers around the data collection practices of companies like LinkedIn, which has faced multiple lawsuits over the years for its handling of user data. LinkedIn's parent company, Microsoft, has been accused of collecting and sharing data from job applicants without their consent. The company's data collection practices have been shrouded in mystery, with many users unaware of how their data is being used.

In January, a group of job applicants filed a lawsuit against LinkedIn, alleging that the company had used their data to target them for other job openings and to sell their data to third-party companies. The lawsuit claims that LinkedIn's data collection practices are in violation of the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) guidelines on data protection.

The implications of this investigation are far-reaching, affecting not only job applicants but also the broader research community. Academic researchers rely on data from companies like LinkedIn to study job market trends and economic indicators. If LinkedIn's data collection practices are deemed to be misleading, it could have significant consequences for the validity of research studies that rely on this data.

For instance, a study published in the Journal of Labor Economics found that LinkedIn's data was used to estimate the impact of job training programs on employment outcomes. If the data used in this study was obtained through deceptive means, it could undermine the credibility of the research and the conclusions drawn from it. The study's authors, who were unaware of LinkedIn's data collection practices, may have inadvertently perpetuated a false narrative about the effectiveness of job training programs.

The investigation into LinkedIn's data collection practices is part of a larger pattern of regulatory scrutiny in the tech industry. In recent years, there have been multiple investigations into the data collection practices of companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon. These investigations have led to significant changes in the way these companies collect and use user data, but they have also highlighted the need for greater transparency and accountability in the tech industry.