LinkedIn caused a storm a couple of days ago when it removed the option to instantly download contacts. The company discreetly removed the tool on July 23 and asked users to request an archive of their data which normally takes up to 72 hours to be completed.
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LinkedIn modified the option to export contact information on the social networking site recently.
The easiest way to get to that page is to open the main account management page https://www.linkedin.com/settings/?trk=nav_account_sub_nav_settings and switch to account on it. There you find listed the option to “request an archive of your data”.
The change was put in place by LinkedIn essentially with the objective of thwarting third-party services that could use the contact list download feature to scrape heaps of user contact information. But that process can take up to 72 hours, unlike the site’s former contact download feature, with which it happened immediately.
It’s not clear what form future changes will take, or quite when they might be implemented. We will then turn this tool off again, as part of our ongoing anti-scraping efforts. Korcuska also added that Scraping is against LinkedIn Terms of Service, Venture Beat reported.
LinkedIn confirmed the removal of the feature through a tweet, saying that users “can still request [a] copy of your LI data, incl 1st degree conns”, a new method it has detailed on a “Help” page updated earlier today.
The process might take longer than 24 hours but it was definitely turned on right after the system update. Founded on May 5, 2003, by Reid Hoffman and founding team members fr…
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LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network on the internet, with more than 259 million members worldwide, including executives from Fortune 500 companies.
