Sell Hack has taken down its "Hack In" tool, which previously allowed LinkedIn users to obtain email addresses from the professional network's database.
In a blog post on Tuesday, Sell Hack wrote that its plug-in no longer works with LinkedIn pages.
Sell hack also confirmed that it had recieved a cease and desist letter from LinkedIn on March 31.
The company says that it only processed publicly visible data from LinkedIn based on a user's profile permissions, meaning there's no security issue with LinkedIn that enabled its browser extension to work.
Sell Hack's Hack In tool, originally spotted by Yahoo Tech, created a button that would appear on any LinkedIn pages you visited. If you wanted to find a certain person's email address, you would click the button to run the profile against Sell Hack's "data sources."
In an email statement to GigaOm, LinkedIn urged its members to "protect themselves" and exercise "caution before downloading any third-party extension or app." Yahoo Tech also reported that Hack In was capable of tracking your activity and collecting information from the pages of any direct connections you visit.
Sell Hack says it's working on a better product that doesn't conflict with LinkedIn's terms of service. Here's the company's blog post in full:
We learned a lot in the last 24 hours which calls for a more analytical retrospect. For the sake of this post I’m going to stick to bullets as there is a lot to communicate and we had more signups today than in our first 60 days combined!
- We received a C&D letter from LinkedIn on 3/31.
- This is not an April Fools hoax.
- SellHack plugin no longer works on LinkedIn pages.
- We only processed publicly visible data from LinkedIn based on your profile permissions…all of which has been deleted.
- LinkedIn stated: “No member data has been put at risk as a result of Sell Hack.”
- We are building a better product that does not conflict with LinkedIn’s TOS.
- We’ve been described as sneaky, nefarious, no good, not ‘legitimate’ amongst other references by some. We’re not. We’re dads from the midwest who like to build web and mobile products that people use.
- Recently been lauded with love (196x), awesome (87x) , ‘you guys f*cking rock’ (3x) amongst others.
- There are 300+ unanswered emails (and growing) in my inbox asking why the button isn’t working. We’ll get back to you before we sleep. Promise.
- We hit a previously record month for signups in one day!
- You are awesome!
- What else would you like to see since we’re taking a fresh look at things?
- Sell Hack Team