Breaking the laws you didn't know existed

Hey everyone!

It’s me, Dana - your LinkedIn data fellow, who tries to share valuable LinkedIn insights with you.

The “laws” could be found easily in the Terms of Use and the User Agreements you signed with LinkedIn, but I don’t suppose you have the time (or the grit) to read those.

So, let’s look at what can get you banned/shadow-banned/restricted.

1. Automation tools

Any tool that comes in the form of a browser extension AND takes your LinkedIn session cookie is a threat. Also, it’s strictly against the User Agreement.

Some of these tools are Taplio, Shield, Bardeen, lemlist and others.

Yes, I know a lot of people use them. I also know they could be handy.

There are 2 main threats when using these tools:

1. You can get banned from LinkedIn for violating the User Agreement

2. Your account can be used for any type of LinkedIn activity without your knowledge (which could get you banned as well)

See, LinkedIn knows what these tools do; if you read the highlighted text in the screenshot carefully, you’ll notice the way they phrased it:

"Extensions... [that]…automate activity on LinkedIn's website”

That’s a weird way of putting this, right?

But this is exactly what could happen when you sign up for an automated third-party service:

• You allow access by giving away your session cookie

• Once the software owners have the cookie, they can do literally anything without your knowledge

Ever wondered why these tools have so many features on the free tier?

Well, you’re paying them with access to your account.

This could mean you may be in a pod without even knowing it!

Bottom line: be very very careful about using these tools. If your LinkedIn account is very important to you, I’d highly advise you to reconsider the use of browser extensions that do whatever kind of magic on LinkedIn.

Let’s talk about cold outreach too…

Something that’s been very popular in 2023 is using tools that scrape around LinkedIn and get you the emails of people so that you can spam their inbox with cold DMs.

First, in Europe, this is illegal (GDPR, anyone?). Second, it’s against the User Agreement:

I know these automations offer a sweet workaround to the hard work that LinkedIn community building requires. But if your LinkedIn is your main bread and butter, I highly suggest you find a “legal” way to do it.

Which brings me to the next point…

How to get rid of automation tools:

1. Remove them from your browser

2. Change your LinkedIn password

3. Log out and log in again

4. Check which third-party services have access to your account and remove them if they look fishy (instructions here)

There is some debate on whether removing the extension from Chrome prohibits access to the cookie. I’ve found that in the worst-case scenario, the automation tool will lose access to your account after one year (which is the expiration date of the session cookie that gives away the access).

Any tool that uses the LinkedIn API is safe because the API is provided officially by LinkedIn.

How can you recognize this?

The software in question wouldn’t ask you to connect your session cookie. Instead, you’ll just have to log into LinkedIn so that it has access to your data.

So far, I know of 2 such tools:

• AuthoredUp

• LinkedIn Geniee

There may be others too, but these I’ve personally tried and tested. Both have options for scheduling posts (LinkedIn Geniee has a nice AI generator for content inspiration and it allows collaboration across teams; I’m a big fan).

I’ll also shamelessly add my upcoming LinkedIn Analytics tool to that list. It analyses your own data (which you download from your profile and upload to the app) and doesn’t use your session cookie to gain access to the account. It’s not an automation tool. The beta version is dropping in January.

2. Creating multiple accounts

There’s a bit of a Catch-22 here. Here’s an example scenario (that I’ve actually witnessed first-hand):

• You get banned because of something

• You start going back and forth with LinkedIn Support, trying to find out what you did

• This spans over a long period of time

• At some point, you say “fuck it” and create a new account

Next thing you know, the new account is banned again because you’ve violated the User Agreement, which states you’re allowed to have only 1 personal account.

This creates a devil’s circle. Getting your account back could take months, and it’s not guaranteed at all. LinkedIn Support staff can’t (or simply won’t) tell you which rule you violated, so you won’t even know what you did wrong. Unless you actually know, of course.

How can you protect yourself?

1. Don’t break the rules

It’s as simple as that. I know most people don’t know that using automation tools is against the User Agreement, but now you do.

2. Get a Premium subscription

This one hurts. It’s been estimated that Premium users experience a much lower likelihood of getting banned for “small” crimes.

I hate it too. Premium is expensive given what it offers for content creators (shit analytics and custom buttons is all I can think of).

But if LinkedIn is your main channel you may need to commit to filling up their pockets.

3. If you’re using spreadsheets with profile URLs…

Many creators do this. Because our favourite hosts make it super hard to keep up with people in the community, lots of folks put the profile links of their fellow creators in an Excel file or a Google Sheet and go check for new posts.

That’s fine, but be careful about this:

Don’t open all profile links at once. Do it one by one.

Open Jane’s profile. Engage. Close. Open John’s profile. Engage. Close.

Why? Because if you open them all at once, it’ll look like you’re using an automation tool.

The same goes if you want to clean up your connections list. Delete connections slowly and mindfully. I do know someone who got restricted because his fingers moved on the screen very quickly.

4. Don’t make LinkedIn your only channel

If I get banned tomorrow, what will I do? Well, there are 156 of you receiving this email, so I’ll just drop you an email, complain about our tyrannical LinkedIn hosts, and make sure to stay in touch.

Get the point? Use LinkedIn to drive people to a platform you own. Apart from any monetizing aspect, at least you get to keep the contacts of people who are important to you.

5. Download your LinkedIn profile data regularly

Some people choose to disclose their email publicly in their LinkedIn account. The email address can be found in the Connections.csv file you get in the archive. The data is pretty unusable in its raw form, but at least in that file, you can still see some of the email addresses. It’s not much because most people choose not to disclose their email address, but some do, so it’s worth it.

Your data is pretty hidden (thanks, LinkedIn), but here you can read how to access it.

I’d like to thank Daniel Hall for teaching me a tonne about automation tools. I’ve personally tried each and every one of them. This means I have no idea whether they have access to my account as we speak. You should totally follow Daniel.

Disclaimer: I’m not on a personal crusade against Taplio, lemlist, Bardeen and Shield. In fact, I realise they’re trying to add to LinkedIn’s features and make your life easier. However, if it could cost you your account I believe you should be informed about that. Also, I’m not in any way affiliated with AuthoredUp or LinkedIn Geniee.

I hope this was a helpful read! See you all next week!

Dana

Next week’s topic:

It’s your call! Again. 

Many thanks to Jay Melone for inspiring this week’s issue.

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