LinkedIn verification was created to help confirm users' real-world identity. But for one user, getting that verification badge opened his accounts to threats he didn’t expect.
A Zurich-based blogger who goes by the moniker "rogi" and writes about “surveillance capitalism” on a blog called The Local Stack, decided to verify his account on LinkedIn. The process took some minutes: from scanning his passport to taking a selfie and waiting for confirmation.
His check badge was granted once he finished the process, but that wasn’t really satisfying enough for him. So, in his own words, he “decided to do what nobody does" by reading LinkedIn’s privacy policy and terms of service.
That’s when he realized the verification wasn’t handled directly by LinkedIn, which Microsoft owns. It was routed through a third-party company called Persona.
“I had never heard of Persona before this,” rogi wrote. “Most people haven’t. That’s kind of the point—they sit invisibly between you and the platforms you trust.”
Persona’s published subprocessor list includes infrastructure providers like Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform, as well as AI firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic. To rogi, that raised a red flag. “Your government-issued identity document is being fed through the same companies that build large language models,” he warned.
rogi suggests that if you’re already verified on LinkedIn, you should look into deleting the data Persona collected. “That blue badge might not be worth what you’re trading for it,” he said.
Persona’s CEO, Rick Song, responded publicly. “No personal data processed is used for AI/model training,” he wrote. He added that biometric data is deleted after processing and other personal data is erased within 30 days. He also said the subprocessor list represents a broad set of vendors used across all customers, not necessarily for LinkedIn verification specifically.
Persona also works with platforms like Discord and Roblox for age verification. As more platforms push identity checks to combat bots and fraud, these intermediaries gain enormous visibility into personal data.
Ogbonda Chivumnovu
