So I've had a linked in account for years, never really used it.

today I got an email from them with suggestions for links, inc an old school friend who I am still in contact with, and ....


.....

.....

an EX GIRLFRIEND from nearly 20 years ago


So as I have not spoken / emailed / contacted / seen her etc since we split, HTF does linkedin know about her??

We have no friends in common, no facebook friends in common nothing, absolutely no link to each other. And according to linkedin's 'who's viewed your profile' she hasn't looked at mine.

so whats the score here???

LinkedIn probably knows because your ex girlfriend probably did look for your profile at some stage....and LinkedIn keeps track of these things.

Well I'm not into that sort of thing, so I've deleted my linkedin account, a bit too much like big brother for my liking.

I've noticed recently that suggestions of who I may know could only have been found from my address book. Many are names of customers or people who get my newsletter.

Is it possible at all that Likedin can access my computer address book, or is it more likely that these people have also looked at my profile at some point. I do get the feeling that Big Brother is peering over my shoulder sometimes.

could be, but thats definatly not the case here, my mate isn't in my address book with this email address, and the ex isn't on any of my computers etc, we don't even have any friends in common, or worked for the same companies, so unless its like fitzgera says then there is no way at all they could have linked us.

Just had a quick google of how they do it and it seems this isn't uncommon and is causing a bit of a stink, sounds like they also have links into facebook searches?? anyway just upped my privacy settings there too, don't want that bitch contacting me.

It could be that she looked you up and saw your profile?

There's an option to allow LinkedIn to access your address book, or you can upload it from your Outlook/etc file. I uploaded mine years ago, and it still occasionally remembers the people in there. At least that's the only way I can imagine it makes some of the recommendations that it does.