Ask HN: Why isn't distributed scraping used on social media sites

Posted by prakhar897 on Tuesday February 21, 2023 @01:36AM
from the ask-hn dept.

Suppose I build an extension for LinkedIn where it adds some functionality on LinkedIn user profile pages. This means the extension can see the complete profile of every LinkedIn User that the chrome extension user interacts with.

I can then send this data to myself and scrape a good chunk of LinkedIn. Apart from this being illegal, Why isn't this done yet?

( 2 comments | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Why isn't distributed scraping used on social med... by mdmglr on Tuesday February 21, 2023 @02:03AM (#34877700)

I recall reading about this being done already. I forget names, but usually popular extensions are then sold to unscrupulous parties which add new code to do malicious stuff like this.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why isn't distributed scraping used on social med... by egor2820 on Tuesday February 21, 2023 @02:54AM (#34878116)

The problem is to become popular enough so scraped data become a sufficient represenation of all users. The app needs to be useful. At this point why ruin your reputation instead you can continue to gain new users.

[ Parent | on HN ]