CyberNew CyberNew
Threat Intelligence & APT The Record 3 weeks ago

LinkedIn wins court order blocking mass scraping of user data

CN
CyberNew Threat Research Desk
• Original Reporting: The Record
CyberNew Threat Intel Assessment
Assessed Severity: INFORMATIONAL
Impacted Surface
Cloud & Distributed Infrastructure
Intelligence Sector
Threat Intelligence & APT

Analyst Takeaway

"Image: Greg Bulla / Unsplash LinkedIn wins court order blocking mass scraping of user data A California federal judge on Thursday finalized a deal between LinkedIn and two software companies that requires the firms to stop scraping user data on a mass scale. The agreement between LinkedIn, ProAPIs and joint business operator Netswift also requires the firms to stop selling and transferring the..."

Recommended Defense & Mitigation

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Curated & Verified by CyberNew Threat Intelligence Desk Standard Defense Framework (NIST / MITRE ATT&CK)
linkedin
Image: Greg Bulla / Unsplash

LinkedIn wins court order blocking mass scraping of user data

A California federal judge on Thursday finalized a deal between LinkedIn and two software companies that requires the firms to stop scraping user data on a mass scale.

The agreement between LinkedIn, ProAPIs and joint business operator Netswift also requires the firms to stop selling and transferring the data, no longer access LinkedIn through fake accounts and delete the data that was scraped, according to a senior LinkedIn executive. 

Sarah Wright, who oversees litigation and enforcement for the tech giant, called the outcome an important triumph in a Thursday LinkedIn post.

“Your profile is yours,” Wright said. “What you choose to share on LinkedIn is meant for the professional community you're building, not for an outside company to scrape and use in ways you never agreed to.”

LinkedIn sued the companies and their CEO last October, alleging in its complaint that the firms created a massive network of bogus accounts — numbering in the millions — that scraped the data on a constant basis. The targeted data included member, company and school information alongside member reactions, comments and posts.

Source Verification & Original Intelligence

This threat report was reviewed by CyberNew analysts and cross-referenced with primary security disclosures from The Record.

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