Alternative: Submit resumes directly to companies you are interested in and/or use a recruiter. The latter is surprisingly nice. Last time I used one I got lined up for phone interviews with little effort and the recruiter pushed the company forward during the hiring pipeline when the company was being wishy-washy.

The recruiter only gets full payment if you get hired and stay at your job for a full year. (And this payment does not come from you!)

The amount of jobs I’ve gotten through LinkedIn: 0.

The number of people I have found from highschool/college/random person on the street who I can’t find in Facebook: waaaaaay too many. If it didn’t tell you who was looking for you, linkedin would be far creepier of a stalking tool. I mean, shit I’ve found people I’ve only seen a picture of. Now I know where they work, where they used to work, and went to school. By extension I now also know where they likely used to live and at least the general area that they live now (provided they don’t work remote that is).

The more I think about LinkedIn, the more I want to remove my profile.

This is kinda standard practice for many of the tech companies… I’ve had to provide such information to Google, I think I declined last time but it was some rights for Youtube that time, it’s also something that Facebook do ask some users if they think you’re not using your real name…

I totally get your sentiment about this.

San Jose BBB

Ironically, Coursera requires govt ID to furnish certificates. I have a cyber security certificate sitting in limbo. I ain’t giving y’all my govt ID so I can obtain a cyber security cert. Seems like a trick!

I agree with you about not wanting to share a government document with a shitty social media company. But companies that tie your account to your identity are going to insist on this moving forward. You have a right to complain, but don’t be surprised if they insist. Their walled garden, their rules.

As a US Citizen, I have found that sending them an image of a US passport card is a decent compromise. The card itself is only useful for travel at land borders, but counts as Federally-issued ID. It has your name, nationality, passport card number, and date of birth, but not your address. The picture isn’t really good for much. And, perhaps most importantly, all the ICAO stuff that is normally on your passport page is on the back of the passport card, meaning that a picture of just the front doesn’t have all the info. Bonus points if you are old enough to have an expired one, then the card number will be useless.

There is very little damage a identity thief can do with just a passport card number. You are probably at more risk with your DOB being there. But, due to COPA, they probably have your DOB anyway. People can’t even book flights with it, as passport cards are only for land crossings.

Kind of bs, seeing as how I use my friend’s account (with permission) to access the free Udemy courses that his career provides him and I’ve never seen this. Figures they’d nail legitimate users and completely miss people who abuse the system. Typical Microsoft.

Hope an alternative comes someday; I’ve always disliked LinkedIn.

Happened to my friend. Had to jump through hoops for months to get his acct back.

There is no real alternative for networking professionally. None id advise anyways.

Yup, had them lock an account before. Never gave them my info. Had to start a new account and actively work around their fraud protections with fingerprinting. And eventually reconnect. Pain in the butt.

You have zero recourse and no appeal process. Even uploading an ID doesn’t guarantee anything.

We’ve given up too much control… the damage is done.

I’ll be happy to see Reddit go down ! There moderation policy. Overly sensitive practices, inconsistent behavior, and cowardly moderators ruined the platform… don’t breathe too loud, you’ll get banned…smh

There’s been people talking about making a federated version (of LinkedIn), but I havent seen any actual code written.

I think it has potential, but without enough people wanting to hop on, it will be an empty solution.

Ugh this sucks, but no, not really. LinkedIn isn’t just a platform, it’s the people on it. No other site exists that will get you the same amount of exposure. There are definitely other sites and non-internet options for networking in general though.

I had this same thing happen when I tried to sign up years ago. There is no way around it, there is no alternative. The only option is to send them pictures of your ID, which is in the “hell no” category on my to do list.

Xing.com, basically German LinkedIn.