LinkedIn wins permanent court order blocking ProAPIs from scraping user data

Overview

Updated Sep 24

If you have a LinkedIn profile, a data broker may hold a copy of it. Two California firms scraped millions of profiles with fake accounts, then sold access to that data for up to $15,000 a month — until a federal judge ordered them to stop and destroy what they took.

The Sept. 17 order settles LinkedIn's October 2025 lawsuit against ProAPIs, its partner Netswift, and co-founder Rehmat Alam. It's a negotiated consent judgment, not a merits ruling, so it binds only these defendants. LinkedIn has now removed two scrapers in five months, but the next data broker is already selling subscriptions.

Why it matters

This ruling limits which companies can profit from copying LinkedIn profiles without permission — your data included.

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Key Indicators

$15,000

Monthly top-tier subscription for scraped data

ProAPIs sold access to LinkedIn data via an iScraper API, with premium tiers reaching $15,000 a month.

13 million

Daily profile requests at the premium tier

The top subscription allowed 150 requests per second, roughly 13 million profile pulls a day.

95 million

Automated scraping attempts LinkedIn blocks daily

LinkedIn reported blocking roughly 95 million automated scraping attempts every day.

Scraping operations removed in five months

LinkedIn removed ProAPIs and earlier persuaded data broker Proxycurl to stop scraping.

Voices

Curated perspectives — historical figures and your fellow readers.

People Involved

Sarah Wright

LinkedIn executive overseeing litigation and enforcement

Led the case against ProAPIs through to the consent judgment

Rehmat Alam

Co-founder of ProAPIs and Netswift

Permanently barred from accessing LinkedIn under the consent judgment

Organizations Involved

Enterprise customer

Plaintiff that secured the consent judgment

Microsoft-owned professional network that filed the underlying scraping lawsuit.

ProAPIs

Data broker and API provider

Permanently barred from scraping LinkedIn; ordered to delete scraped data

A self-described “data pipeline platform” that sold access to scraped LinkedIn data through an iScraper API.

Netswift

Software company

Barred from LinkedIn under the same consent judgment

Joint business operator of the ProAPIs data-scraping operation.

Timeline

October 2025 September 2026

3 events Latest: September 17th, 2026 · 2 months ago

September 2026
Federal judge finalizes consent judgment
Latest Legal

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California permanently bars ProAPIs, Netswift, and Alam from accessing LinkedIn via fake accounts, bots, or automation, and orders deletion of all scraped data.
September 17th, 2026
February 2026
Parties reach agreement in principle
Legal

LinkedIn and the defendants agree to settle after months of litigation. Bloomberg Law reports the agreement in February 2026.
February 2026
October 2025
LinkedIn sues ProAPIs and Netswift
Legal

LinkedIn files a federal lawsuit alleging the firms created millions of fake accounts to scrape member, company, and school data on a constant basis. Claims include breach of contract, fraud, and CFAA violations.
October 2025

Scenarios

LinkedIn sues the next ProAPIs

Likely Resolves by Q2 2027

Discussed by: gblock analysis and The Record note LinkedIn has removed two scraping operations in five months, pointing to an active enforcement program.

LinkedIn takes the consent judgment as a template and files a new federal suit against another data broker selling scraped profile data. The judgment established no legal precedent, so each new case must be fought on its own contract and user-agreement grounds.

ProAPIs ban holds, case closes quietly

Likely Resolves by Q2 2027

Discussed by: Bloomberg Law and Law360 report the defendants consented to the judgment; The Record notes ProAPIs posted that it will never scrape LinkedIn again.

ProAPIs, Netswift, and Alam comply: they delete the scraped archive, stop selling data, and file no appeals. The docket goes quiet apart from a final compliance filing.

ProAPIs violates the ban, faces contempt

Unlikely Resolves by Q2 2027

Discussed by: gblock analysis questions whether the deletion obligation will be audited or “merely promised.”

A former customer or LinkedIn discovers ProAPIs still holding or selling LinkedIn data, or still running fake accounts. LinkedIn moves for contempt, asking the court to enforce the judgment with sanctions.

Historical Context

2 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.

June 2017 – April 2022

hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn (2017–2022)

Data analytics firm hiQ Labs scraped LinkedIn member profiles that were publicly visible. LinkedIn sent cease-and-desist letters and blocked hiQ's crawlers; hiQ sued, seeking an injunction to keep scraping.

Then

In 2019 the Ninth Circuit ruled scraping publicly available data does not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and reaffirmed in 2022 after the Supreme Court's Van Buren decision.

Now

hiQ ultimately lost on contract-based claims and paid LinkedIn $500,000. Companies posting terms of service retained contract and trespass-to-chattels claims even where CFAA fails.

Why this matters now

It explains why LinkedIn sued ProAPIs for breach of contract and fraud rather than relying only on CFAA, and why this consent judgment, built on user-agreement violations, stuck.

November 2013 – May 2015

Craigslist v. 3Taps (2013–2015)

Craigslist sent scraper 3Taps a cease-and-desist letter and blocked its IP addresses. 3Taps and its partner PadMapper kept scraping by moving to different hosting and circumventing the blocks.

Then

The Northern District of California found that circumventing technical barriers after a cease-and-desist constituted unauthorized access under CFAA and entered a permanent injunction.

Now

The case established that bypassing technological gates, unlike merely scraping open pages, creates clear liability.

Why this matters now

ProAPIs' use of millions of fake accounts to dodge LinkedIn's blocks mirrors the 3Taps pattern of circumventing technical barriers, the liability theory that won in court.