LinkedIn Ordered to Face Customer E-Mail Contacts Lawsuit

LinkedIn Corp. must face a lawsuit claiming the company violated customers’ privacy rights for marketing purposes by accessing their external e-mail accounts and downloading their contacts’ addresses.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh in San Jose, California, means LinkedIn members who sued can continue to pursue damages for revenue the company made using their e-mail address books as they try to expand the case to include thousands of other customers. Yesterday’s ruling follows Koh’s earlier decisions in a Google Inc. privacy case involving e-mail users that were sharply critical of the search engine company’s policies.