Out of nowhere, they locked me out of my account, then they asked for my phone number, and I had to put in a code received through SMS. But that was not enough, because then they asked for a national ID card (the gall!). Of course I did not send it.
However, I kept trying to log in with the password and SMS code for a couple of days hoping that the ID requirement faded away, and now they say that I "have reached the maximum number of attempts. Please try again at a later date.". Well, duh.
So, now I have a ghost LinkedIn account with my face and my data that I can't even delete.
I'm seriously thinking about asking a bunch of people to mass report my account for racial hate speech or something so that at least it gets deleted.
Well, keep in mind almost nothing is deleted any longer. Only a deleted_at column is populated in the database, which prevents it from being listed by default. But data is not deleted, and those accusations might last forever as well.
This is where being an EU resident would be handy.
Yeah, it sure would be nice if the same nations that deeply/fundamentally benefit from being epicentres of cutting-edge technology would actually do something to protect the rights of people who are reliant on and are affected by said technology.
It's gotten so bad that it's now a regular paid service that I see offered for people to use bots to mass report your old accounts for a fee to get them removed and delisted for you. "100% guaranteed ban and delist. 1hr turn-around time!"
Of course, using it as a weapon against your competitors is the unsaid reason for these operations...
They say for security purposes they need my phone number (that I've never given them before) to verify I'm me. I've seen this on first login on a new account. I guess they think I'm pretty stupid and I'll believe that.
Facebook once balked and demanded my driver's license scan to keep using the account for security purposes or no more login for you. I called their bluff and abandoned the account. A few months later I tried again and suddenly the driver's license wasn't needed anymore. Then I stopped using it for YEARS until they sent me a single email with a link, which LOGGED ME IN to the dormant account without asking for a password on a new PC that had never used facebook before. I actually don't even remember the password at this point but it is still logged in!
Yeah, that's what's especially insidious about it. Until you attract the eye of Sauron by somehow setting off whatever unknown security trigger (which btw will never ever be disclosed to you), you'll never notice just how quickly everything can be taken away without any recourse. Everything seems just fine, doesn't it? Until it isn't.
