Stop lying on LinkedIn because soon you won't be able to

Stop lying on LinkedIn because soon you won't be able to

If your LinkedIn profile is chock-full of half truths about your degree and slight exaggerations about your past experience, you might want to look alive.

The business-based social network has bought a patented interactive fact-checking system that will put the facts you add to your profile through a lie detector test.

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For example, if you said you "won second prize in a beauty contest", the system would check the results of the contest, and ask you for more information if it can't instantly verify your claims.

If it turns out that you actually didn't place in the beauty contest, the idea would be to prevent you from publishing that false information.

Obviously this won't be perfect; it's unlikely that every university ever will give LinkedIn access to their degree records so it won't be able to check that you got the degree you said you did from the university you said you attended, but at least it shows some willingness to cut the internet's propensity for spreading untruths.

You might as well save it a job and just start telling the truth from now on. Come on, own that 2:2.

News Editor (UK)

Former UK News Editor for TechRadar, it was a perpetual challenge among the TechRadar staff to send Kate (Twitter, Google+) a link to something interesting on the internet that she hasn't already seen. As TechRadar's News Editor (UK), she was constantly on the hunt for top news and intriguing stories to feed your gadget lust. Kate now enjoys life as a renowned music critic – her words can be found in the i Paper, Guardian, GQ, Metro, Evening Standard and Time Out, and she's also the author of 'Amy Winehouse', a biography of the soul star.