LinkedIn iPhone App

Colin Nagle reports "How LinkedIn Snuck Intro Info Into Emails on iOS ." The article describes how the LinkedIn technology team bypassed security on iPhones and iPads to to allow email senders to include a links to the sender's LinkedIn profile with each outgoing email. The technology is described in more detail on LinkedIn's Engineering Blog.

LinkedIn addresses the privacy concerns of routing a person's email through the LinkedIn proxy server. There are a couple of additional concerns about the proxy technology being employed. First of all, having all of a person's mobile-generated email routed through the LinkedIn proxy server creates a new point of failure in email transmission. If the LinkedIn server is overtaxed or fails, then there is a potential for email to be delayed or undelivered.

Second, as this service was developed without Apple's approval and counter's Apple's security provisions, the possibility exists that that Apple will block the usage of the technology in a future iOS update, resulting in the inability to transmit new email from an iPhone or iPad until the LinkedIn technology is deleted.

In summary, I think the LinkedIn engineering team was very creative, but I would not opt-in for the service if I used an iPhone for critical emails.

-DD