LinkedIn has filed a lawsuit against a software firm it accuses of operating a network of millions of fake accounts to scrape data from its members and then selling that information to third parties on an “industrial scale.” The firm allegedly charged its clients up to $15,000 per month for access to the stolen data.
Allegations of Harm and Deception
In the lawsuit, filed in a Northern California federal court, LinkedIn asserts that the software company, ProAPIs, is undermining “the confidence that LinkedIn members place in the company to protect their information” and causing significant harm to the professional networking platform. The suit also names the company’s CEO, Rahmat Alam.
LinkedIn claims that ProAPIs used its network of fake accounts to “scrape” various types of member data, including professional details like company and school information, as well as posts, reactions, and comments. The filing explains that while LinkedIn’s technical defenses routinely restrict fake accounts within hours of their creation, the fraudulent profiles still manage to gather substantial amounts of data in that short timeframe. The networking giant further alleges that ProAPIs performs this unauthorized scraping while simultaneously displaying LinkedIn’s trademarks on its website without permission, creating a false impression that the software firm is affiliated with or endorsed by LinkedIn. The filing clearly states, “To be clear: there is no association or endorsement,” and insists, “What defendants are doing is unlawful and must stop.”
Commitment to Legal Action
Sarah Wight, LinkedIn’s VP for legal, commented on the situation in a post on the LinkedIn platform, stating that the company is committed to taking aggressive legal action to prevent the misuse of its member information. She cited the platform’s history of legal battles against data scrapers, including a significant legal victory earlier this year, in July, against the software firm ProxyCurl.
What The Author Thinks
The sheer scale and commercial brazenness of ProAPIs’ alleged operation, selling stolen member data for up to $15,000 a month, demonstrates the highly valuable black market that exists for professional data. While LinkedIn’s constant technical defense against fake accounts is commendable, the fact that an “industrial scale” operation can profit from the brief window before detection highlights the systemic difficulty of protecting open-access professional profiles. These lawsuits are necessary but ultimately defensive, confirming that the business model of any social platform relies heavily on its ability to impose its own rules of digital entry, even against sophisticated, profit-driven adversaries.
Featured image credit: dlxmedia via Unsplash
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