How to Collect Data from LinkedIn Profiles?

how to collect LinkedIn profiles

Before discovering how to collect LinkedIn profiles, you should find out if it’s legal or if you can pull them. 

So, can you pull data from LinkedIn? 

This question has over 50 million searches on Google. The search volume shows how important it is to find out if it is possible. 

The answer is yes. Certainly, you can scan and extract LinkedIn profiles and pool information in your digital library. It is simply because the information that is available there is public, which means people can have it legally for a variety of purposes. 

What is public data?

It is a piece of information that can be freely used, reused and circulated without seeking consent of data subjects. This type of data does not come under data regulations like GDPR, which are meant for securing privacy and sensitive details of individuals. 

All press releases, job descriptions and marketing matters represent its fine examples.  

Like these examples, LinkedIn profiles are also public data. So, you can pull that data without thinking about the legality issue because it’s 100 percent legal.  

How can you collect data through LinkedIn profile scraping?

Linked profile scraping can be easily done with “copy and paste” service providers. Even, anyone can easily and quickly do it. 

This platform of professionals also provides an option to effortlessly get profiles’ details in whole or of specific categories. You can easily go to settings & privacy page of any account and get the required details.   

  • Sign in the account that is already there.
  • Go to the “Me” icon given at the top of the LinkedIn homepage.
  • Move to “Settings & Privacy” from the dropdown list. 
  • Select the “Data Privacy” appearing on the left pane.
  • Find the “How LinkedIn uses your data” section and tap the button “Get a copy of your data”.
  • Select the data that you want to have for usage.
  • Request for the “archive”.

This action is automatically monitored by the platform, which sends an email in response.  You may ask to archive specific categories or the entire profile. It’s your choice or requirement. But, the link for downloading the profile data is sent through an email at different point of time. 

  • If only specific categories are extracted, the email will be sent instantly.
  • If the volume is larger as the whole profile in request, the email will be delivered in 24 hours. 
  • Once done, go to the email link and click for downloading the profile data. The data must be downloaded in 72 hours, as it won’t be there afterward. 

Points of Concern

  • Prefer to download only your own data. Use your personal computer, as the IP address of a public computer is tracked to restrict the scraping of LinkedIn profiles.
  • You cannot extract it using your mobile phone. 
  • If the profile has no certifications listed, only categories of data will be available. 
  • You cannot have the personal data of some other people on this platform. 
  • This platform does not show any recommendation like people you may know or who viewed your profile. But, it shows how many people have checked your profile. 
  • The closure of your account will make that data inaccessible forever. You may get all details regarding closing an account on what happens after you close your account.
  • It allows you to adjust privacy settings that enable checking or missing your email address. Enabling allows downloading the email addresses.   
  • Do check “privacy policy” that tells how and with whom you can share that personal data. In addition, you can also check how to exercise right to privacy. 
  • You can access in details how LinkedIn transfers data while providing services and lawful mechanisms defined for personal data access. 
  • The California Consumer Privacy Act allows requesting for disclosing how it has collected, used, and shared the data of any profile over the past 12 months.