Lawyers for LinkedIn Inc. and data-mining startup hiQ Labs Inc. jousted in court Thursday afternoon in a case that could determine the fate of hiQ.
Until recently, hiQ was using data from public LinkedIn profiles to create analytics tools for employers to identify valuable workers and map the skillset of their workforces. But in-house counsel for LinkedIn sent the company a cease-and-desist letter in late May claiming that hiQ’s scraping activities were prohibited under the site’s terms of service. LinkedIn set up technical barriers to block hiQ’s access and warned that any further efforts to access the site would risk violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a federal anti-hacking law passed in 1986 that carries civil and criminal penalties.
