LinkedIn had claimed that another company, hiQ Labs, was illegally downloading information about LinkedIn users to help drive its business. Where LinkedIn and hiQ clashed was over hiQ’s product, which almost exclusively depends on LinkedIn’s data, according to Judge Edward Chen. To allow hiQ access to LinkedIn’s data would be a gross violation of LinkedIn users’ privacy, LinkedIn argued. But Chen didn’t buy it, saying that LinkedIn already chooses to provide data to third parties of its own accord. What’s more, he added, people who make their profiles public on LinkedIn probably want their information seen by others, which undermines LinkedIn’s claim to be protecting user privacy.

Source: thestar August 15, 2017 19:07 UTC