An update to terms of service isn’t usually a headline-making event, even at the biggest brands.

Yet, this past year tells a different story.

In June, Adobe got into hot water for scraping content to use for its AI-learning models and then changing its terms of service to allow it. Weeks earlier, Meta went through a similar challenge when it changed the terms of its privacy policy to allow the use of customers’ data in its AI-learning models. In August 2023, Zoom faced criticism for its updated terms of service around AI training and then had to write a blog article to clarify its plans.

Did all those headlines serve as a cautionary tale for other big brands to stay clear of an AI-related terms-of-service controversy? Ask LinkedIn.

The social media darling of the B2B world has come under fire this month for automatically opting users into a program that trains generative AI models with their data. Some LinkedIn users weren’t happy to learn of the change.

So, we asked Robert Rose, CMI’s chief strategy advisor, for his take. What he says is the reason for the outcry may surprise you. Read on or watch the video:

LinkedIn’s terms of service turns heads

Is the fuss warranted? Do you care that LinkedIn is using your content on LinkedIn to make LinkedIn more LinkedIn-y? Or, as my wife says, is it that “It’s not the thing. It's the principle of the thing?”

404 Media broke the story about AI content-mining and reported that LinkedIn would update its terms of service “shortly.”

Once the company made the change, the terms of service included this passage (as many do today):