Judge Says LinkedIn Cannot Block Startup From Public Profile Data (reuters.com)

A U.S. federal judge on Monday ruled that LinkedIn cannot prevent a startup from accessing public profile data, in a test of how much control a social media site can wield over information its users have deemed to be public. Reuters reports: U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction request brought by hiQ Labs, and ordered LinkedIn to remove within 24 hours any technology preventing hiQ from accessing public profiles. The dispute between the two tech companies has been going on since May, when LinkedIn issued a letter to hiQ Labs instructing the startup to stop scraping data from its service. HiQ Labs responded by filing a suit against LinkedIn in June, alleging that the Microsoft-owned social network was in violation of antitrust laws. HiQ Labs uses the LinkedIn data to build algorithms capable of predicting employee behaviors, such as when they might quit. "To the extent LinkedIn has already put in place technology to prevent hiQ from accessing these public profiles, it is ordered to remove any such barriers," Chen's order reads. Meanwhile, LinkedIn said in a statement: "We're disappointed in the court's ruling. This case is not over. We will continue to fight to protect our members' ability to control the information they make available on LinkedIn."

Comments

Huh?

[Sebby]

We will continue to fight to protect our members' ability to control the information they make available on LinkedIn

If users added their info, and made it public, it's not up to LinkedIn to decide what users want to protect.

Besides, given LinkedIn's past behavior with scraping people's contacts/address books on their PCs and email accounts, it has no lessons to give anyone else.

Re:Huh?

[Richard_at_work]

Whether or not the user made the info public, does this ruling affect how a website or service can regulate third parties and the extra load they create?

Grabbing one users public info is a world of difference to grabbing a million users public info - LinkedIn may have a legitimate argument about undue additional load on their service as a result of scraping public info from them.

Re:Huh?

[sg_oneill]

If users added their info, and made it public, it's not up to LinkedIn to decide what users want to protect.

Wrongo! Its their server. This ruling is *very* erroneous, and since I'm not in the job market, I'm going to be deleting my account now. Which is actually a shame, because I was using it to keep up with former workmates from previous jobs, but I'll be damned if I'm going to be handing my work history over to asshole companies that specializing in mining through other peoples bins looking for evidence to hang me with