31–40 of 168 posts
I'm torn. On the one hand, scraping helps break down walled gardens. On the other, we're talking about personal details being used in novel ways that no LinkedIn user probably understands. I doubt any LinkedIn user writes their profile expecting HiQ to scrape it, assign a "flight risk" score and alert your bosses.
I think that's a reasonable balance - you can scrape data, but not personal data without consent of the scraped person.
The summary here is that LinkedIn tried to argue that it could prevent scraping of public LinkedIn profile data under their ToS, but the courts have ruled that if data is public and provided by users, it can be scraped/crawled, that is, it isn’t LinkedIn property. This is generally a positive outcome for people/companies turning web text and HTML into structured data, e.g. tools like Puppeteer and Scrapy can be used…
I think that's fine, but I also think the end-user should decide. With Google (edit: I meant Facebook) I'm able to determine whether or not I want to show up in search results. This shouldn't be an absolute is or isn't public situation.
I'm torn. On the one hand, scraping helps break down walled gardens. On the other, we're talking about personal details being used in novel ways that no LinkedIn user probably understands. I doubt any LinkedIn user writes their profile expecting HiQ to scrape it, assign a "flight risk" score and alert your bosses.
Besides, LinkedIn is already sharing every last bit of their users' information with the highest bidder.
I'm torn. On the one hand, scraping helps break down walled gardens. On the other, we're talking about personal details being used in novel ways that no LinkedIn user probably understands. I doubt any LinkedIn user writes their profile expecting HiQ to scrape it, assign a "flight risk" score and alert your bosses.
The users agreed to publish their details publicly on LinkedIn. It’s normal that anyone can access those details and use them however they like.
Imagine being denied job opportunities because some company has analyzed the careers of the last 25 generations of your ancestors and deemed your lineage to be inadequate?
The summary here is that LinkedIn tried to argue that it could prevent scraping of public LinkedIn profile data under their ToS, but the courts have ruled that if data is public and provided by users, it can be scraped/crawled, that is, it isn’t LinkedIn property. This is generally a positive outcome for people/companies turning web text and HTML into structured data, e.g. tools like Puppeteer and Scrapy can be used…
I think that's fine, but I also think the end-user should decide. With Google (edit: I meant Facebook) I'm able to determine whether or not I want to show up in search results. This shouldn't be an absolute is or isn't public situation.
What if LinkedIn adds a visibility option in addition to public/private profile that says "I want LinkedIn to prevent robots from scraping my profile."? What if LinkedIn enables that mode by default? Can they then continue preventing scrapers?
"Circuit Judge Marsha Berzon said hiQ, which makes software to help employers determine whether employees will stay or quit, showed it faced irreparable harm absent an injunction because it might go out of business without access.[...]
“LinkedIn has no protected property interest in the data contributed by its users, as the users retain ownership over their profiles,” Berzon wrote. “And as to the publicly available profiles, the users quite evidently intend them to be accessed by others,” including prospective employers."
This isn't some sort of empowerment of the public, it's surveillance capitalism. No end-user in their right mind publishes data on LinkedIn with the expectation that the information is bought up by a third party, analysed, and then sold back to your employer in a way that exposes your personal intent and may even threaten your job. The only thing this accomplishes is enabling shady business models that feed of a sort of internet voyeurism, and at the end of the day it'll lead to people turning their profiles private and making LinkedIn more difficult to use if you're someone who is looking for information in good faith.
As expected a lot of people here talking about public data and whatnot, but that is a horrible decision. "Circuit Judge Marsha Berzon said hiQ, which makes software to help employers determine whether employees will stay or quit, showed it faced irreparable harm absent an injunction because it might go out of business without access.[...] “LinkedIn has no protected property interest in the data contributed by its use…
The summary here is that LinkedIn tried to argue that it could prevent scraping of public LinkedIn profile data under their ToS, but the courts have ruled that if data is public and provided by users, it can be scraped/crawled, that is, it isn’t LinkedIn property. This is generally a positive outcome for people/companies turning web text and HTML into structured data, e.g. tools like Puppeteer and Scrapy can be used…
I think that's fine, but I also think the end-user should decide. With Google (edit: I meant Facebook) I'm able to determine whether or not I want to show up in search results. This shouldn't be an absolute is or isn't public situation.