I use unique email addresses for everything, and while this doesn't happen now LinkedIn remains one of two websites I've ever signed up to that started spamming my email address immediately after signing up. The email address doesn't even actually exist, it was only ever used in their account creation page, so I know it was them that compromised it.
If you remember how LinkedIn started out this is in no way surprising. They've always been worse than Facebook.
I don't get it, if the email you used doesn't exist, how did you know they're spamming you ? since there is no inbox for you to see !
I'm not saying they won't use it for something else, like targeted ads, but usually the moment you sign up, they'll start asking you to sign up for premium, they're spammy in the way they do it, I literally had to hibernate my account.
The email address I give out doesn't exist, but whenever sends me an email to an address that doesn't exist it gets forwarded via the back-end of my email server to my actual email inbox. So I receive emails sent to those addresses, and the email I receive has the non-existent email address in the "To" field.
I end up sending email from this actual email, but I spoof the "From" email to the non-existent one. I've actually been planning on changing this, because it's possible for people to read the header information and determine my actual email address. What I'm thinking of doing is creating "noreply@mydomain.com" with a 0MB mailbox, and then using that for all outbound emails.
And yeah, like I say, after doing this for many years I generally get very little spam. There are a couple websites that apparently got hacked, their emails get spam, and things like my voter registration email (which is in the public domain) gets all sorts of crap. But LinkedIn was unique in that the spam started immediately. The only other website that this happened with was AdultFriendFinder.
Maybe the websites were compromised when I signed up on those occassions. My most recent LinkedIn account did not have this happen. However, it certainly fits the pattern of behaviour from LinkedIn, and furthermore that recent LinkedIn email also gets its share of spam these days, and it's spam that's related to the industry I work in. LinkedIn aren't supposed to be giving this email out, and yet people get it somehow.
I HAVE THE GREATEST JOB IN THE WORLD!!! Thanks so much to @rist097 for hosting this 3-day roundtable on career leadership. "A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way." #leadership#lovemyjob#notdoingitforthemoney
Somewhere I read the comment, "LinkedIn is like high school but for adults." I see it as a circle jerk of enthusiastic Kool-aid guzzlers mixed with the greatest hits of Hallmark card business wisdom. A place where people excitedly chat about how really REALLY NICE the weather is.
As someone who is unemployed I detest it and the culture it promotes. The switch in my brain that recognizes the job search must be transactional cannot be willfully ignored for some reason. If I met people organically and shared a genuine interest then sure, you can call that "networking" if you like. That's a great path if you have a job and plenty of time to tend to those relationships.
Wading through all the Mr. Meeseeks wannabee LinkedIn influencers certainly does not restore my faith in humanity though. /rant