Mastodawn

since that browsergate site about LinkedIn seems to be gaining traction I figure I should mention:

yes, LinkedIn does do what's being claimed (though, it's that it probes for specific extensions you're running, using features in chrome's API - it doesn't "search your computer")
it does seem to have been doing this since at least as far back as 2017, and there has been intermittent reporting on it over the years
I'm fairly confident the copy on the site was generated by (or at least went through) an LLM, so idk that this site is the best way to spread the issue around

edit: and as someone else noted in the replies, looking through the list of extensions of scans for... they're pretty much all "AI"/scraper/automation plugins. so, should LinkedIn be doing this, or even able to do this in Chrome? no! but also, it does seem like the stuff they're scanning for is all extensions that shouldn't exist to begin with tbh

edit 2: please see this follow-up post which proves this is just a shitty campaign by people who made an addon called "Teamfluence" that got blocked by LinkedIn

GitHub - dandrews/nefarious-linkedin: :shipit: A look at how LinkedIn spies on its users.

:shipit: A look at how LinkedIn spies on its users. - dandrews/nefarious-linkedin

GitHub

sorry for the edit notif spam - I was trying to find the oldest example of this being talked about and it was a bit difficult to find something solid

ok, quick follow-up screenshots to show that:

Those behind browsergate.eu and fairlinked.eu are in fact the same people behind "Teamfluence", the scraper/automation/etc addon company listed as bringing the lawsuit against LinkedIn
Teamfluence was also the company mentioned and (poorly) redacted in the legal docs browsergate.eu offers up with the quotes from a LinkedIn engineer

So basically, Teamfluence was scraping data from LinkedIn, got blocked for it, and now are trying to get this trumped-up campaign going to [checks notes] try to be able to automate scraping vacuuming up peoples' LinkedIn data again. I'm no fan of Microsoft or LinkedIn, but the purpose of their detection methods here seem to be preventing addons like Teamfluence which harm both them and LinkedIn's users

(note: I was drafting this last night, but was looking for more info still - credit to William O'Connell on bsky for discovering and posting the screenshot of the court document that is now the 4th screenshot in this post)

Apicultor 🐝6h ago

@vantiss
If LinkedIn is doing what is claimed, who's blowing the whistle is irrelevant; it's despicable and needs to be called out.

And it sure looks like they are indeed doing as was claimed.

Ms. Rachel Andry (Isn't Real)6h ago

@apicultor imagine proudly posting the equivalent of "I've fallen for propaganda" and believing that you're good and right

social elephant in the room 6h ago

@YKantRachelRead @apicultor ok, perhaps I fell for it too. but I don't see what business linkedin have scanning for 6000 possible chrome extensions linked to the the identity of someone. And if it is illegal under GPRD, it is illegal. So I side with the other comment saying the source is irrelevant (even if it not disinterested)

@tseitr
I think that's right. I don't see much merit in Microsoft having exclusive access to a trove of data instead of another parasite. It's not like they respect other sites when scraping the web.

I see no merit in allowing Microsoft to scan computers for the privilege.

@YKantRachelRead @apicultor

lez-anya 1h ago

@iinavpov @tseitr @YKantRachelRead @apicultor nobody is defending Microsoft when they point out that the company currently complaining that Microsoft/LinkedIn are scraping data is also a datamining company.

It is possible to be against both sides in this case.

lez-anya 6h ago

@apicultor @vantiss who is blowing the whistle, and why, is always relevant.

Especially if the who and why is "AI dataminers because they want more access to your data"

All parties involved in this are in the wrong.

Jennifer Moore 😷6h ago

Aaah thank you for this. Makes sense of their dramatic tone.

Kevin Granade 6h ago

@vantiss yea this is very much in the "the worst people you know are fighting" genre. Pretty much everyone with a Really Big Web Presence does some kind of fingerprinting to try and at lest detect bot/scraping activity, and then the devil is in the details of how they do it and what they do in response.
"you need to treat scrapers fairly" is a REALLY HARD argument to make.

Stacey Cornelius 🇨🇦4h ago

@vantiss Thank you for shining a light on this. I saw a bunch of browsergate posts and thought something was off; poking around to figure out what was really happening didn't clarify a whole lot. smh

@vantiss just read through the site before seeing this post and yeah, it definitely seems to have been written by an llm :(

among other things, there are so many "it's not X, it's Y" structures in places where it is extremely unnecessary. and also, one of the repos they cite in the Credits page for "running this research" has a .claude folder in it

@b yeah - I looked into who is bringing the lawsuit and it's... a LinkedIn addon maker for automation/scraping/LLM stuff called TeamFluence,

and the github repo with the .claude in it is built by a guy who is an ex-Twitter employee that now does entrepreneur/startup stuff and is an active LLM booster

Moses Izumi 1d ago

@kopper joked that the browsergate site was created by a vengeful plugin developer:
"just say which one of those [browser plugins] is one you made. we all know the true reason"
"yes we all know the DMA requires them to accomodate.... checks notes... "[brand] LinkedIn Automation - Smart LinkedIn automation with AI-personalized outreach. "
https://not-brain.d.on-t.work/notes/akl6kqe0d6r30jcb

@vantiss

kopper :colon_three: (@kopper)

just say which one of those is one you made. we all know the true reason

not brain don't work

Jennifer Moore 😷1d ago

Thanks for this, that sets it into perspective.

Dr. Sobek 19h ago

@vantiss Does this LinkedIn scandal apply to other browser / browser engines ? Or just Chrome / Chromium / Blink ?

@Sobex
afaik, this attack only works on chromium browsers