There’s a new report making waves alleging that LinkedIn employs hidden JavaScript code to meticulously scan users’ browsers, specifically targeting and cataloging installed extensions.
The report, which is being dubbed “BrowserGate,” further claims that the business social network identifies and focuses on extensions that directly compete with its own suite of sales tools. Ultimately, the claim says LinkedIn wants to subtly pressure users to switch over to its offerings.
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What is LinkedIn doing?
The report paints LinkedIn in a very negative light. It says, “LinkedIn scans for over 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 competitor products. It is extracting the customer lists of thousands of software companies from their users’ browsers without anyone’s knowledge.”
Scanning without user knowledge sounds bad enough, but the report also claims “it uses what it finds. LinkedIn has already sent enforcement threats to users of third-party tools, using data obtained through this covert scanning to identify its targets.”
It appears that the scanning portion of the claim is true, at least according to tests conducted by BleepingComputer, which found that LinkedIn uses JavaScript to check for exactly 6,236 browser extensions. “The script also collects a wide range of browser and device data, including CPU core count, available memory, screen resolution, timezone, language settings, battery status, audio information, and storage features,” BleepingComputer said in its report.
The publication continued, “The script also collects a wide range of browser and device data, including CPU core count, available memory, screen resolution, timezone, language settings, battery status, audio information, and storage features.”
LinkedIn confirmed that it does scan for extensions. However, it claims it does so to identify users who violate its terms of use. “The claims made on the website linked here are plain wrong. The person behind them is subject to an account restriction for scraping and other violations of LinkedIn’s Terms of Service,” the LinkedIn response says. “To protect the privacy of our members, their data, and to ensure site stability, we do look for extensions that scrape data without members’ consent or otherwise violate LinkedIn’s Terms of Service.
The key to LinkedIn’s response is “We do not use this data to infer sensitive information about members.”
LinkedIn also notes that “The court ruled against them and found their claims against LinkedIn had no merit, and in fact, this individual’s own data practices ran afoul of the law.”
It continued, “Unfortunately, this is a case of an individual who lost in the court of law but is seeking to re-litigate in the court of public opinion without regard for accuracy.”
It’s hard to see for sure who’s in the right here, but with the German court already ruling in LinkedIn’s favor, it’s hard to think the social network is doing something malicious, even if it admits to scanning its users’ browser extensions.
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