LinkedIn wins court order blocking mass scraping of user data

A California federal judge approved a settlement between LinkedIn and two software firms, ProAPIs and Netswift, ordering them to stop mass scraping user data, delete scraped data, and stop using fake accounts. LinkedIn sued last October, alleging the firms used millions of bogus accounts to scrape member, company, and school info plus reactions and posts. A LinkedIn executive called it a major win, saying user data is not for third parties. ProAPIs stated it "does not offer tools to scrape LinkedIn" but agreed to the consent judgment. The post does not disclose the exact volume or use of scraped data.