Or, how LinkedIn gets back at you for cancelling Premium…
Yesterday, I logged into Tomcat Labs’s LinkedIn page too see that my tiny, humble organization had been searched by… the Department of War.
In today’s climate of digital surveillance and constant breaches of data privacy, everyone expects the feds to be watching. So I reacted the way others do when feds appear in their analytics dashboard – I fretted momentarily. Should I be concerned? Am I on a watch list!?
Having worked in government contracting before, it also didn’t escape me that it was September, aka federal buying season – the time of year when agencies scramble to spend the remainder of their budgets before the federal fiscal year ends. Which then made me start to think…in spite of all my efforts to build up my ideal client list, should I have actually set my sights on the Department of War? – I mean, no, absolutely not… but it is a funny thought exercise…
It seems like government officials’ digital carelessness keeps creeping into the headlines, so they probably do need all the help they can get. Who could forget about the accidental adding of civilians to encrypted Signal chats where sensitive military information was being discussed. Or the former Congressman texting so openly about executive-level matters while on his flight that another passenger was able to record his entire conversation. Or the DOJ staffer who eagerly shared confidential information about to his Tinder date only to be secretly recorded. The list goes on! For all the billions that federal agencies spend on technological innovation, you might say there is room to grow when it comes to basic cyber hygiene. Is it a surprise to anyone that a 2023 DOI report on cybersecurity found “Password-1234” to be the Department’s most used password, while CISA has been begging software partners not to allow default passwords anymore… and federal agencies still drag their feet on adopting multi-factor authentication because apparently it’s too confusing?
Anyway, after my mind finished running through these entertaining possibilities, I allowed myself to sink into the more logical and boring explanation – that it wasn’t the Department of War itself that sought out my page, but more likely one or two individual employees who probably searched broad terms like “AI” or “cybersecurity”, and my page happened to surface enough for LinkedIn to flag those search demographics.
And this in itself is likely a deliberate design choice on LinkedIn’s part – dropping subtle cues that prompt users to go down the rabbit hole wondering what the intent could be. As you have now seen, it’s hard for anyone not to get imaginative when they see the words Department of War sitting in their analytics dashboard. What a better way to drive repeat logins than allowing users to think that the federal government is seeking out their organization? If they’re looking, then who else is???
The bigger elephant in my room is that I did cancel LinkedIn Premium earlier in the month. When it comes to top page searcher data, LinkedIn doesn’t tell you the specific employee that searched, or what keyword led them to you…unless you have Premium. And right above the “Top Page searcher demographics” section sits the upsell – “Identify business prospects who found your Page – See who’s visited your Page and more with Premium.”
Brava on the clever engagement tactic, but I won’t be resubscribing to Premium. I was only in it for the free month trial anyway.