Security → Linkedin Intro intercepting mail on iOS

All,

Recently LinkedIn released a software product named "Intro" that is promising to expand the functionality of the iOS mail software to inform users on their contact's business connections but in fact has grave security concerns. This software behaves much like malware (trojans to be specific - promising a feature but exploiting the user) and reconfigures the mail client to pipe users' mail through LinkedIn's servers where they can scrape and process the mail in any way they see fit before the user's device. This can potentially cause users to violate NDAs and other confidentiality agreements without being fully aware of the ramifications.

I recommend everyone treat this software as malware (perhaps minor, but still malware as it does compromise security) and be on guard for any additional moves by LinkedIn to process similar information.

References:
»engineering.linkedin.com ··· ible-ios

PS: When will social networking companies stop or be stopped in their continuing abuse of privacy and deceptive practices?

When consumers learn enough about how social media works and what they have to give up in exchange. No doubt recent NSA discloses are giving people some inkling about how pervasive intrusions to privacy are.

You will note in the link your provided that LinkedIn already posted an addendum "clarifying" how the system works due to questions that were raised. So I assume that there is some rumbling already.

LI is supposedly now focusing on mobile apps (due to how their users access LI) and those apps reportedly introduce yet other security issues.

This has not gone unnoticed in security circles:

LinkedIn Intro App Equivalent to Man in the Middle Attack, Experts Say
»threatpost.com/linkedin- ··· s/102683

How LinkedIn snuck Intro info into emails on iOS
»www.networkworld.com/com ··· ails-ios

Jury still out on nasty LinkedIn app.