What Photographers Need to Know about Sharing Photos on LinkedIn

Last week LinkedIn added the ability to share photos on the homepage and some photographers have already started taking advantage of this new ability. Here is what you need to be aware of before sharing your images on the site:

- LinkedIn strips ALL metadata from your photos.
I uploaded a test image with complete EXIF and IPTC data embedded to determine how LinkedIn handles metadata (which includes your copyright information). Not one bit of it was left intact after uploading. Nothing, nada, zip, zero.

- LinkedIn's User Agreement gives them the right to, among other things, commercialize any content you upload to the site. I know, you think it's overly paranoid to worry about a social networking site using your content...it's not as if we've ever had any problems with that before have we?


" Additionally, you grant LinkedIn a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual, unlimited, assignable, sublicenseable, fully paid up and royalty-free right to us to copy, prepare derivative works of, improve, distribute, publish, remove, retain, add, process, analyze, use and commercialize, in any way now known or in the future discovered, any information you provide, directly or indirectly to LinkedIn, including, but not limited to, any user generated content, ideas, concepts, techniques and/or data to the services, you submit to LinkedIn, without any further consent, notice and/or compensation to you or to any third parties"

If you're on LinkedIn connect with me

Just don't expect to see me sharing photos there ;)