Wednesday, June 7, 2023
The Optic News
Advertisement
  • Home
  • Local
  • World
  • National
  • Politics
  • Finance
  • Sports
  • Science
  • Classifieds
  • Social
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Local
  • World
  • National
  • Politics
  • Finance
  • Sports
  • Science
  • Classifieds
  • Social
No Result
View All Result
The Optic News
No Result
View All Result
Home Social

Scraping Data From LinkedIn Profiles Is Legal, Appeals Court Rules

April 18, 2022
in Social
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


Topline

An appeals court Monday ruled that web scraping—or automatically extracting information from websites and storing it for later use—is legal, protecting a tool used by researchers but dealing a blow to Microsoft-owned social networking site LinkedIn, which claimed the practice endangers user privacy.

LinkedIn has attempted to stop other companies from automatically harvesting data from its user … [+] profiles.


getty

Key Facts

The U.S. Ninth Circuit of Appeals affirmed its 2019 preliminary injunction stopping LinkedIn from blocking data company hiQ Labs from accessing publicly visible LinkedIn member profiles.

HiQ uses data scraped from public sections of LinkedIn to create reports for corporate customers, identifying which of their employees are most likely to quit and which are most likely to be targeted by recruiters.

In a 2017 cease and desist letter to hiQ’s CEO, LinkedIn said it had implemented “technical measures” to prevent the company from accessing the site, and claimed using the social network without LinkedIn’s authorization would violate the 1986 Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which prohibits activity like hacking and cyberattacks.

Additionally, LinkedIn told the court an injunction allowing hiQ to resume scraping would threaten users’ privacy and possibly damage the goodwill built up between LinkedIn and its users.

Because hiQ risked going out of business if blocked from scraping LinkedIn, denying an injunction would probably inflict more hardship on hiQ than allowing an injunction would inflict on LinkedIn, the court concluded Monday.

A LinkedIn spokesperson indicated that the company intends to keep pursuing the case, remarking the case is “far from over.”

Key Background

After LinkedIn sent its cease-and-desist letter in 2017, hiQ asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to issue an injunction preventing LinkedIn from interfering with its data-scraping practices, or “misusing the law to destroy hiQ’s business.”. After the appeals court first ruled in hiQ’s favor in 2019, Microsoft petitioned the Supreme Court to review the decision. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case, but ordered the appeals court to vacate its previous ruling and reconsider the case. On Monday, the appeals court upheld its 2019 decision, a ruling which a LinkedIn spokesperson described as disappointing. HiQ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tangent

Scraping is not necessarily an illicit activity—search engines like Google use scraping to automatically gather web page addresses and descriptions to include in search results. Scraping can also be used to more efficiently collect and process data for scientific studies. An ongoing U.K. government study of opioid deaths made use of scraping to extract information from coroners’ reports at a rate of over 1,000 reports per hour, up from about 25 reports per hour when the task was being handled manually. Though LinkedIn acknowledges scraping can be used for legitimate purposes, it claims scraping of LinkedIn profiles done without the company’s approval endangers user privacy.

Further Reading

“Protect Your Site From Stealth Scraping Through Google Search” (Forbes)



Source link

Tags: AppealsCourtDataLegalLinkedInProfilesRulesScraping
Share30Tweet19
Previous Post

Federal Judge Strikes Down the Mask Mandate on Planes and Public Transit

Next Post

New Report Highlights That Instagram Hashtags Don’t Significantly Increase Post Engagement

Recommended For You

7 Steps to Create Engaging Twitter Ads [Infographic]

by The Optic News
June 6, 2023
0

Are you considering investing in Twitter Ads for your business? There's a lot changing at the app, which has seen some brands pull back their ad spend, but...

Read more

Foo Fighters Are Shaken Yet Still Standing on ‘But Here We Are’

by The Optic News
June 2, 2023
0

For all Dave Grohl’s grinning joviality, it’s easy to forget that his long-running rock group Foo Fighters was, initially, a solo project born of grief. The former Nirvana...

Read more

LinkedIn Launches New ‘Find Your In’ Ad Campaign

by The Optic News
May 29, 2023
0

LinkedIn’s launching a new promotional campaign, created by ad agency Droga5, which aims to highlight how you can use the platform to find your ideal career pathway. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CkCNoCrZG8...

Read more

Want to Be an Artist? You’re in Luck. This One Is Selling His Practice.

by The Optic News
May 26, 2023
0

The phenomenon of the artist who drops out, whether only leaving the scene socially or actually ceasing to make work, may be as old as the scene itself,...

Read more

TikTok Challenges Montana’s Decision to Ban the App

by The Optic News
May 22, 2023
0

As expected, TikTok has launched a legal challenge against Montana’s decision to ban the app in the state. Last Wednesday, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed legislation to ban...

Read more
Next Post

New Report Highlights That Instagram Hashtags Don't Significantly Increase Post Engagement

Van Dyke Avoids Federal Charges in LaQuan McDonald Murder

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Hydrate

The Optic News

Copyright © 2022 - The Optic News.
The Optic News is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Navigate Site

  • Home
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA
  • Cookie Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Contact us
  • Client Portal
  • Client Portal
  • Client Portal
  • Client Portal

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Local
  • World
  • National
  • Politics
  • Finance
  • Sports
  • Science
  • Classifieds
  • Social

Copyright © 2022 - The Optic News.
The Optic News is not responsible for the content of external sites.