February 21, 2026
From badge to background check
I Verified My LinkedIn Identity. Here's What I Handed Over
Commenters cry 'naive,' others refuse the badge, and everyone asks who’s training on our faces
TLDR: A LinkedIn blue check runs through Persona, which collects passport and biometric data and may use images to train AI under “legitimate interests.” Commenters are split between “you were naive,” “I refuse to hand over ID and will use affidavits,” and suspicions about database vendors in the data chain.
The internet is clutching its digital pearls after one LinkedIn user chased a blue check and discovered a whole data dragnet behind it. Tapping “verify” didn’t just ping LinkedIn — it routed their passport and selfie to third‑party service Persona, which allegedly hoovers up everything from face scans to device info and even uses images to train AI under “legitimate interests.” Cue the comment‑section fireworks.
Privacy hardliners are flaming the move as “naive” and bragging about skipping social apps entirely, with one user bailing on Facebook when asked to video‑prove they’re human. Another locked‑out LinkedIn user flat‑out refuses to hand over a government ID to “Microsoft’s minions,” claiming there’s an old‑school workaround: an attested affidavit instead of a passport scan. The practical crowd wants receipts: did the author actually try to delete their data, and how long did it take? Meanwhile, a confusion‑turned‑conspiracy subplot erupted when folks spotted database giants in Persona’s subprocessor list; commenters wondered if tools like MongoDB and Snowflake are just piping data or moonlighting as data harvesters. And for comic relief, users confessed they only verified a work email and still got a mini‑badge, while a Krebs post conveniently popped up in feeds. The meme of the day: “Came for a badge, stayed as training data.”
Key Points
- •LinkedIn’s identity verification is performed by third-party vendor Persona Identities, Inc., not directly by LinkedIn.
- •Persona collects extensive personal, biometric, device, and behavioral data during verification, including passport images, selfies, facial geometry, NFC chip data, and metadata.
- •Persona cross-references users against multiple external databases (government, credit, utilities, mobile providers, postal) to validate identity.
- •Persona’s policy states identity document images are used to train AI and selfies to improve services, citing “legitimate interests” rather than user consent.
- •LinkedIn receives limited verification outputs (name, birth year, ID type/issuer, result, blurred ID image), while Persona may share data with service providers, affiliates, data partners, acquirers, and law enforcement.