- Report Alleges LinkedIn Scans Browsers for Extensions
- Complaint data used against competitors in “BrowserGate”
- LinkedIn denies misuse, calls accusations a smear campaign
A new report claims that LinkedIn uses hidden JavaScript to scan its visitors’ browsers for installed extensions, looks for ones that compete with its own sales tools, then twists the arms of its users until they stop using them and choose LinkedIn’s products instead.
However, the social network claims that it is a smear campaign led by a disgruntled extension developer who lost a legal battle in Germany.
A “LinkedIn commercial user association” called Fairlinked eV published a report detailing “BrowserGate” – claiming that LinkedIn searches thousands of browser extensions and matches the results to identifiable user profiles – and that by scanning, LinkedIn harvests personal and corporate information.
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Scans confirmed, reasons unconfirmed
“LinkedIn searches for more than 200 products that directly compete with its own sales tools, including Apollo, Lusha, and ZoomInfo. Because LinkedIn knows each user’s employer, it can map which companies use which competing products. It extracts the customer lists of thousands of software companies from their users’ browsers without anyone knowing,” the report said.
“Then it uses what it finds. LinkedIn has previously sent enforcement threats to users of third-party tools, using the data obtained from this covert analysis to identify its targets.”
Apparently the scanning part is true – BeepComputer ran an independent test and saw JavaScript code checking exactly 6,236 browser extensions. The post states that many of the extensions analyzed are linked to LinkedIn, but some have seemingly unrelated features: language and grammar extensions, tools for tax professionals, and more.
“The script also collects a wide range of browser and device data, including the number of CPU cores, available memory, screen resolution, time zone, language settings, battery status, audio information, and storage features.” BeepComputer reports.
In response to the accusations, LinkedIn says it searches for the extensions, but it does so to prevent users from violating the site’s terms of service. It also claims that the author of BrowserGate is waging a smear campaign after losing a court battle in Germany.
Protect user privacy? Or rape him?
“The claims made on the website linked here are completely false. The person behind them is subject to an account restriction for scraping and other violations of the LinkedIn Terms of Service,” LinkedIn’s response states.
“To protect our members’ privacy, their data, and to ensure the stability of the site, we look for extensions that harvest data without members’ consent or that violate LinkedIn’s terms of service.
Here’s why: some extensions have static resources (images, javascript) available to be injected into our web pages. We can detect the presence of these extensions by checking if this static resource URL exists. This detection is visible in the Chrome Developer Console. We use this data to determine which extensions are violating our terms, to inform and improve our technical defenses, and to understand why a member account may collect an excessive amount of data from other members, which, on a large scale, impacts the stability of the site. We do not use this data to infer sensitive information about members.
For further context, in retaliation for the restriction of this website owner’s account, they attempted to obtain an injunction in Germany, alleging that LinkedIn had violated various laws. The court ruled against them and found that their claims against LinkedIn were unfounded and that, in fact, this individual’s own data practices were against the law.
Unfortunately, this is a case of an individual who lost in court but is seeking it again in the court of public opinion without regard for accuracy. »
Apparently, the author of BrowserGate built a browser extension called “Teamfluence” which LinkedIn claimed violated the site’s terms of service for automated data collection.
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