On LinkedIn, a Reference List You Didn’t Write

LinkedIn is the industry leader in helping people make work connections. Log on, and this professional-networking site displays a sampling of “people you may know” — often including colleagues at a user’s own workplace — with whom to start hobnobbing.

Now, however, four people are suing LinkedIn, contending that one of the site’s networking features cost them job opportunities.

The LinkedIn service in question is called “Reference Search.” It is available only to premium account holders, who pay a monthly fee. An employer or recruiter can use it to generate a list of people in its own network who worked at the same company at the same time as a job candidate. It also allows premium members to use the site’s messaging system to contact people who appear on those lists, without notifying a job candidate.

In Sweet v. LinkedIn, a class-action suit filed last month in Northern California, the plaintiffs contended that LinkedIn, in providing the job reference material, enabled potential employers to “anonymously dig into the employment history of any LinkedIn member, and make hiring and firing decisions based upon the information they gather,” without ensuring that the information was accurate. This, they said, is a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

“You may never know you did not get the job based on one of these so-called references,” said James L. Davidson, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs.