“Web scraping” involves the use of software to collect data from the internet, which can then be sold to other users. On September 9, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a decision in hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp., No. 17-16783, holding that LinkedIn could not deny a web scraping company access to publicly available LinkedIn member profiles.
hiQ is a data analytics company that uses automated bots to “scrape” information which LinkedIn members include on their public profiles for the purpose of selling the collected data to hiQ’s business clients. LinkedIn sent hiQ a cease and desist letter, demanding that it stop collecting data from LinkedIn’s server. A California district court preliminarily enjoined LinkedIn from denying hiQ access to publicly available information in LinkedIn’s members profiles, and the Ninth Circuit affirmed.
Rob Nussbaum has lectured numerous times on legal issues and social media and how social media and other electronic evidence may be admitted into evidence at trial. He concentrates his practice in general commercial litigation and appears regularly in New Jersey federal and state courts.
For any questions relating to whether your website or social media presence can be used against you as a basis for personal jurisdiction, please contact Robert B. Nussbaum, Esq. at Saiber LLC.