Analysis Of the Articles about the Mission Of Linkedin - Research Paper Example

1. A close analysis of the given articles shows that the mission of LinkedIn is to connect the world’s professionals to enable them to be more productive and successful. This is made possible through the use of the organisation’s website, mobile applications as well as other related electronic connections. Basically, this is a platform where millions of registered users can meet and exchange ideas, learn, conduct deals, find employment as well as make friendships. In order to be a member, one is expected to complete a registration process. In order to ascertain if creating a profile is enough to constitute a contract, it is imperative to begin by defining what a contract is so as to be better positioned to gain a clear understanding. “A contract is an enforceable agreement between two (or more) people where one person offers to do something and another person accepts that offer,” (http://www.paralegaladvice.org.za/docs/chap12/02.html). On the other hand, Koffman & McDonald (2007:1) also define a contract as, “a legally enforceable agreement giving rise to obligations for parties involved.” In simple terms, it can be said that if you and another person have agreed to do something for each whereby the other party promises to pay in return, then you will have made a contract. It can be noted that a contract can be in verbal or written form but the most important thing is that there would be an agreement to perform duties especially between two parties involved. From the above definitions, it is abundantly clear that by virtue of creating a profile on LinkedIn website, one would have entered into an agreement which constitutes a valid and legally enforceable contract. The one who creates a profile in this case is referred to as the User and the moment he creates an account, he agrees to be bound by the terms and conditions of using the service. The User thus becomes obliged to meet certain conditions such as giving due respect to applicable laws such as privacy and copyright laws, obliged to ensure service eligibility as well as payments among other duties to be observed by the user. It is also clearly indicated in the agreement statement that if one does not to be legally bound by using the LinkedIn service, then he must not create a profile. It can be noted that by any standard, these statements constitute a contract where the one about agreement clearly spells the binding terms while the other one about privacy states the expected conditions of usage of the service. 2. Once a contract has been made and both parties involved are aware of the contractual obligations to fulfil, this becomes legally binding and is enforceable in the event of breach of that contract by the other party. Should the user violate the user agreement, the claim of such violation can come under the jurisdiction of LinkedIn. They have the power to make an amicable decision that is concerned with ensuring that there is compliance among those who committed themselves to be bound by the agreement. In any case, a law suit can be filed in the event that the other person involved in the contract has breached the terms and conditions of the agreement. For instance, if the user feels that there has been no fairness in the treatment of information, he can approach TRUSTe which is concerned with protecting consumer interests. LinkedIn is a licensee of TRUSTe, an organization which is specifically concerned with dealing with issues related to promoting fair information practices. LinkedIn has made it apparently clear that anyone who is not satisfied with the way it handles privacy queries, then he can raise the complaint with TRUSTe. In essence, the main difference between LinkedIn and other social sites like Twitter and Face Book is that LinkedIn is mainly concerned with connecting the world’s professionals in order to enable them to be more productive and successful while the other two mainly focus on social events like friendship as well as relationships. Information exchanged on Face Book may not be highly private and there may be little connotations of copyright and privacy. LinkedIn deals with private information that need to be protected under copyright laws unless otherwise the owner and the user have agreed on the nature of usage. Protection of intellectual property is given priority in the case of LinkedIn and any disputes can be solved within the jurisdiction of the judiciary which is the final arbiter of disputes among different people hence it would be legal to file a lawsuit against a person who breaches a contract. Since the agreement signed entered would be legally binding where all the parties involved ought to respect their contractual obligations, it will be prudent to pursue the matter with the aid of lawsuits should there be any claim. The user has the right to withdraw any consent to LinkedIn’s collection and processing of his information at any time which may be deemed to be too sensitive as this is done voluntarily. In accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy and the User Agreement, the user can change the settings or by closing the account but the withdrawal of consent will not be retroactive. This means that the previous action cannot be done again which will mean that previously cancelled or withdrawn information cannot be used again in the same database. It can be seen that the two parties who enter into a contract often freely do it where there is no undue pressure on the other side by the other party. It can thus be argued that something that has been made freely and agreed upon is enforceable in the event of failure to fulfil the contractual obligations as mentioned in the agreement. The guiding principle in the formation of the contract is that both parties involved are intentionally aware of the agreement they would be making. Where there is no one forced into making a contract, then there is every reason for both parties involved to honour their contractual obligations. In this case, breach of a contract by one party will be within the jurisdiction of the law which seeks to protect the interests of both parties who enter into an agreement. 3. Two of LinkedIn/user’s legal rights from the documents include the need to respect all intellectual property rights that may belong to third parties and users are not allowed to provide to LinkedIn and/or other Users information that they believe might be injurious or detrimental to your person or to your professional or social status. All the users have a legal right to protect their intellectual property given that the essence of this site is to promote the meeting of professional people whereby they can share their ideas as well as learn something new that will help them develop. The original owner of identifiable intellectual property remains legally entitled to that property unless otherwise stated and agreed between the third party and the owner. Indeed, where there is an agreement, this information can be freely used but it is illegal for the third part to use that information. Thus, the owner of a document has a legal right to own it and LinkedIn has a duty protect such property which belongs to other people. Providing LinkedIn with information that is believed to be harmful is prohibited and is the duty of both the user/LinkedIn to ensure that no such information should be allowed to see the light of the day through the sight. This defies the scope of the website which was primarily designed to link the professionals in a productive manner not through information that is detrimental to the cause of human life and particularly to their professional careers. LinkedIn is mainly concerned with taking the privacy of the Users very seriously whereby it does not sell rent, or provide user’s personally identifiable information to third parties for marketing purposes. However, this can be changed by privacy and application settings when there has been an agreement to have those changes. If the User consents that some of his information be made available to the other third parties, the settings for the User can be changed to meet that provision. The public profile can be activated then. LinkedIn is committed to protect personal information at all costs and it can only carry out the task of doing that upon instruction from the user to provide the information to the third party. On the other hand, the User personally can change the settings and make such information accessible to the other parties. If the User chooses to make certain information protected under property rights available to the other third party upon agreement, he can change the settings as deemed necessary by the privacy. In other words, it may not be possible for this information to be displayed without the consent of the rightful owner as this would be in violation of the contractual agreement. References Consumer law- What is a contract? (N.D.). Retrieved 23 Nov. 10 From: http://www.paralegaladvice.org.za/docs/chap12/02.html Contract-frustration (N.D.) Retrieved 23 Nov. 10 from:http://tutor2u.net/law/notes/contract-frustration.html Gibson G.T.R. (1988). South African mercantile and company law. Cape Town. JUTA & Co LTD. Kleyn D. & Viljoen F. (2002). Beginner’s guide for law students. 3rd Edition. CT. JUTA Koffman L & McDonald E. (2007), The Law of Contract, 6th Edition, Oxford University Press. Retrieved November 23 2010-11-23 from; http://books.google.co.za/books?id=8JtwkQrAC_kC LinkedIn privacy policy highlights (N.D). Retrieved November 23 2010 From :http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=pop_privacy_policy LinkedIn user agreement (N.D). Retrieved Nov 23 2010 From :http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=user_agreement Read More