Naughty, naughty. LinkedIn has decided to opt in its 100m users to a default setting where names and images can be used for third-party advertising, taking the lead from Facebook with its habit of quietly changing privacy settings with no rush to notify users.

In a change to its 7400-word privacy policy, LinkedIn states that it will use personal information to: ‘Create and distribute advertising relevant to your or your network’s LinkedIn experience. If you share your interactions on LinkedIn, for example, when you recommend a product, follow a company, establish or update your profile, join a Group, etc., LinkedIn may use these actions to create social ads for your network on LinkedIn using your profile photo and name.’

So this means, for example, that if you follow a company your name and face could appear in one of their LinkedIn ads. But are you following them because you genuinely love their products? Or is it because they’re a competitor? If it’s the latter you might not be too happy to be inadvertently promoting them to other people in your network.

In a recent blog post, Ads enhanced by the power of your network, Product Management director Ryan Roslansky puts a much more positive spin on the situation, pointing out that this new change should be useful and relevant to users. For example it could incorporate your face into a job ad and display the people who could give you a reference alongside.

It is a move, however, that could draw legal scrutiny in Europe, if making the announcement in blog posts rather than formally notifying users is seen as a breach of privacy laws. Facebook has already received criticism after implementing features like facial recognition and instant personalisation without proper disclosure, which has paved the way for closer scrutiny of other social networks.

It’s one of a number of grumbles about LinkedIn lately; along with the usual complaints about excessive emails and issues of usability, users have noted the difficulty of downgrading to the free version after trying out the premium subscription service.

If you want to opt out of the social advertising, just go to Settings, Account, Manage Social Advertising and untick the box (see above).