What next for LinkedIn data scraping?

After a nearly 6 year battle, LinkedIn has won a lawsuit against hiQ Labs for data scraping – what does it mean to you?

When it comes to sourcing candidates, LinkedIn is one of the recruiter’s most essential tools. Some ATS systems, CRMs, and recruitment software use a technique called ‘scraping’ to pull information from a webpage (in this case, a LinkedIn profile). But the practice of scraping data from LinkedIn is forbidden in the license agreement, and in a landmark case, the court ruled that software company hiQ (now dormant) breached LinkedIn user agreement through the action of data scraping of LinkedIn’s site and monetising that data to deliver on client contracts.Judge Edward Chen from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California wrote, “hiQ relied on LinkedIn for its data primarily by scraping wholly public LinkedIn profiles using automated software”.So this ruling leaves you with some questions: Does your ATS or CRM integrate with LinkedIn? Are you risking your LinkedIn profile and licence by using data scraping methods to capture information?Many CRM/ATS claim to have some kind of LinkedIn connectivity but could actually be guilty of data scraping. As well as being unreliable, inconsistent and unstable, being found guilty of scraping data could put your LinkedIn profile at risk if they choose to continue enforcing this rule.Here at Mercury, we are integrated with LinkedIn… PROPERLY. Meaning we work with LinkedIn to provide the best possible data for our clients without scraping, so you know you’re compliant with LinkedIn’s licencing. There are also lots of other features that help you get more from LI Recruiter and Sales Navigator licenses.Get in touch if you’re concerned that your CRM is not correctly integrated with LinkedIn and you want to consider doing things differently.Read the full story on the SIA's website