# Is scraping LinkedIn legal? What the cases say.

> hiQ v. LinkedIn, Meta v. Bright Data, Proxycurl and ProAPIs in plain words: what courts decided about public data, and what they did not. Not legal advice.

Canonical: https://apiforagents.dev/guides/is-linkedin-scraping-legal · Updated 2026-10-16

There is no one-line answer, and this page is not legal advice. In the United States, courts have said that reading public pages is not hacking under the federal anti-hacking law (hiQ v. LinkedIn, 2022), and that a site's terms may not reach logged-out visitors (Meta v. Bright Data, 2024). They have also let contract, fraud and trademark claims go forward against scrapers that used fake accounts (hiQ, Proxycurl, and ProAPIs in September 2026). How you collect and use data matters as much as whether it is public.

- hiQ v. LinkedIn: 2017 to 2022
- Meta v. Bright Data: Jan 2024
- LinkedIn v. ProAPIs: Sept 2026
- Legal advice: No

## The cases people cite

| Case | What happened | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn (9th Cir., April 2022) | The appeals court again upheld an order stopping LinkedIn from blocking hiQ, finding hiQ raised serious questions that scraping public profiles is not access "without authorization" under the CFAA. | Reading public pages is unlikely to be a federal hacking crime. It did not settle contract or state-law claims. |
| hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn (N.D. Cal., Dec 2022) | After a ruling on LinkedIn's contract claim, the parties settled; a consent judgment of $500,000 was entered against hiQ. hiQ had used fake accounts for some collection. | Breaking a site's user agreement, especially with logged-in or fake accounts, can still cost you. The consent judgment is not precedent. |
| Meta v. Bright Data (N.D. Cal., Jan 2024) | The court granted Bright Data summary judgment on Meta's contract claim, finding it had only scraped logged-out, public data. Meta later dropped the case. | Terms of use may not bind visitors who never log in. One district court; not binding elsewhere. |
| LinkedIn v. ProAPIs (N.D. Cal., Sept 2026) | LinkedIn sued ProAPIs and Netswift in 2025 over scraping with fake accounts and reselling member, company, post, comment and reaction data. A consent judgment requires them to stop scraping, stop selling the data, stop using fake accounts and delete what they hold. | Reselling scraped LinkedIn data at scale through fake accounts is where LinkedIn keeps winning. |
| LinkedIn v. Proxycurl (2025) | LinkedIn sued in January 2025 alleging unauthorised scraping, fraud and trademark misuse. Proxycurl shut down on 4 July 2025; LinkedIn announced the case resolved. | Fake accounts and implied endorsement are where providers have lost. Pick one that uses neither. |

## Questions to ask any LinkedIn data provider

- Do you read only public pages, or log in with accounts?
- Do you ever need my LinkedIn login, cookie or session?
- Do you claim to be LinkedIn's partner or the official LinkedIn API?
- Does each record say when it was measured, so I can keep data current?
- Can you delete what you hold about a person if they ask?

## How this API works

API for Agents returns public data only: nothing behind a login, never with your LinkedIn account. It is not affiliated with LinkedIn and does not claim to be. Every record carries the time it was measured. What you do with the data, including privacy law in your country (GDPR, CCPA and others), is your responsibility; our terms say what is allowed.

> **Not legal advice** This page summarises public reporting on court cases for general information. Laws differ by country and change. Ask a lawyer about your own use.

## Questions

### Did hiQ win against LinkedIn?

On the federal hacking question, the appeals court sided with hiQ in 2019 and again in 2022. But hiQ lost on breach of contract, and the case ended in December 2022 with a $500,000 consent judgment against hiQ.

### Is public LinkedIn data covered by GDPR?

Yes, if it is personal data about people in the EU or UK, being public does not take it outside GDPR. You need a lawful basis for processing, and people keep their rights. Ask a lawyer about your use.

### Why did Proxycurl shut down?

LinkedIn sued it in January 2025, alleging unauthorised scraping, fraud and trademark misuse. Its founder announced the shutdown on 4 July 2025 to comply with the settlement.

## Sources

1. [Proskauer: hiQ and LinkedIn reach proposed settlement](https://newmedialaw.proskauer.com/2022/12/08/hiq-and-linkedin-reach-proposed-settlement-in-landmark-scraping-case/), seen 16 October 2026
2. [Morgan Lewis: LinkedIn v. hiQ, guidance to scrapers and web operators](https://www.morganlewis.com/blogs/sourcingatmorganlewis/2022/12/linkedin-v-hiq-landmark-data-scraPing-suit-provides-guidance-to-data-scrapers-and-web-operators), seen 16 October 2026
3. [Farella Braun + Martel: Meta Platforms v. Bright Data](https://www.fbm.com/post/102kqw7/), seen 16 October 2026
4. [Nubela: Goodbye Proxycurl](https://nubela.co/blog/goodbye-proxycurl/), seen 16 October 2026
5. [LinkedIn newsroom on the Proxycurl case](https://news.linkedin.com/2025/LinkedInWinsLegalBattleToProtectMemberData), seen 16 October 2026
6. [The Record: LinkedIn wins court order blocking mass scraping (21 Sept 2026)](https://therecord.media/linkedin-wins-court-order-blocking-mass-scraping), seen 16 October 2026

## Why API for Agents

- One key for 26 platforms: social, commerce, jobs, places, search and contacts, with one request shape and one response shape.
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- Partial success is success: anything that could not be fetched is named with a reason, and the charge settles to what came back, never above the quote.
- Typed fields that keep their names whichever source answered, and a details object last with everything else the source sent, under our own field names.
- Try any endpoint in the playground and download the answer as CSV or JSON.

## Start

The playground runs any endpoint by hand: pick a platform and what you want from it, fill a short form named in plain words (or press Use sample input), see the free quote on the Run button, run it, then read the answer as a table or JSON and download it as CSV or JSON. The same call is written out as cURL, Python and Node while you type. Open it at https://apiforagents.dev/dashboard/run (sign in first).

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