A few minutes ago, I got a message from LinkedIn via the Bay-Area-UX list, a group I’m a member of.  The message is clearly not intended for me, but is a private discussion between a recruiter and a job applicant.  It potentially went out to every member of the Bay-Area-UX list.

I clicked “View/reply to this message” in order to notify the sender that his email had been mis-sent,  and I saw the following error:

This is a serious problem from a site which prides itself on security and privacy.  Hopefully this is a one-off error and not a common occurrence.  The conversation I received is clearly about a startup whose business is still under wraps.  All it takes is one mistake like this to ruin a business model and potentially the success of a fledgling startup.