LinkedIn and ProAPIs, a startup accused of unlawfully scraping data from the Microsoft-owned careers platform, have reached an “agreement in principle” to settle the dispute, according to a court filing in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. Bloomberg reported that the parties are working out settlement details and that terms were not disclosed.
The case stems from an October lawsuit in which LinkedIn alleged ProAPIs created large volumes of fake accounts to extract information from the site. The complaint said the alleged activity relied on automated methods to gather data at scale, raising broader concerns about the use of online data and access controls.
German tech outlet IT Boltwise said the settlement could have “far-reaching consequences” for how internet data may be used, noting that the dispute was being handled in the Northern District of California and that both sides are still finalizing the details of the final agreement. IT Boltwise also noted that the conditions of the settlement have not been made public.
The dispute has drawn attention because “scraping” sits in a gray zone across jurisdictions: technically, it involves automated programs extracting information from websites, and while it can be used for legitimate analytics, platforms frequently argue it violates their terms and undermines user privacy and security. IT Boltwise described the practice as controversial and pointed to ongoing legal uncertainty, particularly in the US, where there is no single, uniform rule that clearly permits or bans scraping in all contexts.
Court records show the case was filed on October 2, 2025, in the Northern District of California. In parallel commentary about the lawsuit’s broader context, reporting on the filing described LinkedIn’s allegations as involving an “industrial-scale” operation using fake accounts to access and copy member information, including some data behind a login wall.
For LinkedIn and Microsoft, the outcome lands in a period of heightened scrutiny around platform integrity, identity authenticity, and data protection, as scrapers and automated collection tools scale alongside AI-driven data use. While the settlement may not immediately clarify the wider legal boundaries of scraping, IT Boltwise said it highlights how complex the technical and legal challenges around online data have become – and why companies continue to invest in safeguards and enforcement to protect member information.
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