The ruling comes after a legal dispute between LinkedIn and data analytics firm HiQ. LinkedIn sent a cease-and-desist letter to HiQ, demanding it to stop scraping the site. In response, the data analytics company counter-sued in hopes of blocking LinkedIn from interfering. The company argued that it blocked HiQ from scraping the data to protect its users’ privacy. On the flip side, the data analytics company said LinkedIn started blocking its scraping requests only after it launched its own analytics tool. The court banned the Microsoft-owned company from blocking HiQ’s attempts to scrape data from publicly available profiles on the platform.
— Orin Kerr (@OrinKerr) September 9, 2019 A LinkedIn spokesperson told the Register the company will continue to fight the case: In earlier cases, such as Facebook v Power.com and Craiglist v 3Taps, courts have sided with companies whose data was being scrapped. However, this case might set a new precedent if the appeals court’s decision stands. However, it might jeopardize the privacy and data of users who has a public profile.
