According to ZDNet, LinkedIn announced today that its “Verified on LinkedIn” program is now open and free for any site or app to use via an API. The program, which has been in a trial phase with select partners since earlier this year, already has over 100 million users who have verified their identities. Zoom is the first major platform to announce integration, planning to incorporate the trust badge into user profile cards and participant lists. LinkedIn’s VP of product for Trust, Oscar Rodriguez, cited the rising difficulty of telling real from fake as the key driver. The rollout to initial partners like Adobe, G2, UserTesting, and TrustRadius began in April 2025. Users can activate it in Zoom settings, triggering an automated workflow that connects back to their verified LinkedIn profile.
The trust problem gets real
Here’s the thing: the blue (or black) checkmark game is getting crowded, but the stakes are suddenly way higher. It’s not just about clout anymore. We’ve moved from worrying about fake Twitter followers to dealing with state-sponsored hackers using deepfakes to infiltrate corporate Zoom calls and steal money. That North Korean Zoom attack earlier this year wasn’t science fiction—it was a brilliantly simple social engineering hack using fake video to deliver very real malware.
So LinkedIn’s timing is pretty sharp. While X’s checkmark is now a paid feature often signaling… that someone paid, and Facebook’s is for celebrities, LinkedIn is positioning its verification as a utilitarian, professional tool. They’re not selling the badge; they’re giving the *signal* away for free to become the plumbing for trust on the business internet. And with 100 million verified profiles, that’s a decent chunk of plumbing to start with.
Zoom’s desperate need for identity
Zoom’s motivation here is obvious. They never really solved the identity problem. Remember Zoombombing? That was just randos crashing parties. The deepfake era, as companies like imper.ai warn, introduces impersonators who look and sound like the CEO. Zoom’s existing host controls are useless if you believe the person joining *is* the CEO.
So a badge that ties back to a LinkedIn profile verified with a government ID (via their partner Clear) or a workplace is a solid first step. It’s a visual cue that makes social engineering a bit harder. But let’s be real—it’s a step, not a solution. Brendan Ittelson from Zoom even admits as much by pointing to their App Marketplace for deeper security, like the Pindrop plugin for real-time deepfake detection. The LinkedIn badge is about establishing a baseline professional identity, not stopping a determined, sophisticated attacker.
The API play and the fine print
This is where LinkedIn’s strategy gets interesting. They’re offering the API on a two-tier basis: a free “Lite” tier and a free “Plus” tier that needs business development approval. The Plus tier presumably gives platforms more user data. Think about it: they’re giving away the verification to spread their ecosystem. Every site that uses this—from G2 for reviews to UserTesting for participant validation—becomes a touchpoint that reinforces LinkedIn as the central source of professional truth.
It’s a classic platform power move. They want to be the OAuth for your professional identity. You see a badge on a Zoom call, a software review, or an Adobe portfolio, and you click it. Where does it take you? Back to LinkedIn. It’s smart, and making it free is the only way it gets ubiquitous enough to matter.
Will anyone actually care?
That’s the billion-dollar question. For high-stakes scenarios—board meetings, financial deals, sensitive research—maybe. But for the daily grind of internal team check-ins? Probably not. The success hinges on platforms baking it in seamlessly and users feeling enough friction to bother setting it up. The process described—going into Zoom settings, connecting to LinkedIn, approving the link—isn’t hard, but it’s another step.
And there’s a bigger, weirder question about the future of identity. If Google is letting a friend vouch for you to recover an account, and email senders can get a blue checkmark via BIMI, we’re in a patchwork era of verification. LinkedIn’s bet is that in the professional world, their graph of jobs, education, and endorsements—topped with a Clear ID check—is the most valuable signal. They’re probably right. But in the arms race against AI-generated fraud, a static badge feels like the very beginning, not the endgame.
