A federal appeal court has rejected LinkedIn’s appeal regarding a San Francisco company that uses the information from their professional networking site. According to the reports, the ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allows the hiQ Labs Inc. to access the information available on the LinkedIn website.
The decision taken by the court sets back the recent developments in the Silicon Valley regarding user’s privacy and ‘accessing their information.’
Judge Marsha Berzon says hiQ, that makes software to help employers determine whether employees will stay with their job or quit is facing a significant loss without access to LinkedIn profiles. In her judgment, she wrote that the users who create accounts on the platform voluntarily allow their profiles to become public and accessible – specifically to the potential employers.
However, LinkedIn was not satisfied with the judgment and claims to contest for their members and the information they entrust them with. Craigslist, a classified ad website also supports the appeal made by LinkedIn and states that this may affect the services in a negative way. It may also make way for the bad actors that are constantly on the lookout for ‘scam’ opportunities.
She concluded her statement by pointing out that LinkedIn did not own any data on the platform and merely blocking hiQ for no reason would force the later out of business.
Photo: Smith Collection/Gado / Getty Images
Read next: LinkedIn is adding auto-generated alt tags to already uploaded images on the platform
The decision taken by the court sets back the recent developments in the Silicon Valley regarding user’s privacy and ‘accessing their information.’
Judge Marsha Berzon says hiQ, that makes software to help employers determine whether employees will stay with their job or quit is facing a significant loss without access to LinkedIn profiles. In her judgment, she wrote that the users who create accounts on the platform voluntarily allow their profiles to become public and accessible – specifically to the potential employers.
However, LinkedIn was not satisfied with the judgment and claims to contest for their members and the information they entrust them with. Craigslist, a classified ad website also supports the appeal made by LinkedIn and states that this may affect the services in a negative way. It may also make way for the bad actors that are constantly on the lookout for ‘scam’ opportunities.
She concluded her statement by pointing out that LinkedIn did not own any data on the platform and merely blocking hiQ for no reason would force the later out of business.
Photo: Smith Collection/Gado / Getty Images
Read next: LinkedIn is adding auto-generated alt tags to already uploaded images on the platform
