It really irks me when I see people on LinkedIn who connect with anyone who is willing to accept a connection. This is a blatant violation of the intentions – and the terms and conditions – of LinkedIn.
I connect only with people I know. I am VERY hesitant to connect with people who are promiscuous linkers, because I do not have any way to know which people in *their* network are trustworthy.
Today I saw a posting on a LinkedIn group that read,
“Lets expand our network together. Open Networker Accepting All Invitations.”
I responded,
“In my own opinion this violates the LinkedIn terms and conditions. And I’m surprised to hear this from a CISSP and CISA who is supposed to uphold two different codes of ethics that require honesty in all professional dealings.
In LinkedIn, we are supposed to connect only with people that we *know*, NOT with everyone who will push a button. The LinkedIn Terms and Conditions, section 3, reads:
‘The purpose of LinkedIn is to provide a service to facilitate professional networking among users throughout the world. It is intended that users only connect to other users WHO THEY CURRENTLY KNOW and seek to further develop a professional relationship with those users.’ (emphasis mine)
How can you reconcile your requirement to abide by the LinkedIn terms and conditions, your statement, “Open Network Accepting All Invitations” and your codes of ethics that require you to respect laws, regulations, and rules?
As security professionals, we are supposed to lead by example. Otherwise, how are we supposed to expect others to do so if we PUBLICLY and brazenly violate them ourselves. Doing so compromises our ability to be effective in our professional work.”
The LinkedIn terms and conditions also says:
“Any other use of LinkedIn (such as seeking to connect to someone a user does not know or to use LinkedIn as a means of generating revenue through the sale of contacts or information to others) IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED AND A VIOLATION OF THIS AGREEMENT.”
Can this be any more clear?
Peter H. Gregory 
The problem is not only with the person putting an open invitation out there, but with anyone who responds to it.
My assessment of LinkedIn is that it is a highly professional, networking site and that being the case, I doubt he will get many takers. After all, who is going to recommend someone they don’t know? He is simply trying to build numbers.
I believe that what he is looking for might be more appropriately obtained on sites like MySpace and Facebook.
It takes two to tango. Why get angry…for those that want to then do and for those that dont want to then dont.
Ah, if it were only that simple. The problem is, when one professional misbehaves, it makes all in the profession look bad. That was my basis for my posting in the first place.