The Complete List of Prohibited LinkedIn Plugins

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There was quite speculation recently over browser plugins (extensions) which are causing some LinkedIn accounts to be suspended. To avoid any doubts, I scrutinised the LinkedIn source code to find out what exactly LinkedIn checks every time we open the LinkedIn.com website.

Source code never lies. The fact that LinkedIn tracks some plugins doesn’t necessarily mean that they are illegal or prohibited in any way. While there might be other reasons for the suspensions, there is no doubt the plugin list is full of data and email scrapers that LinkedIn disapproves of. Even if some of them are produced by established brands such as Hubspot and TalentBin.

As of writing this article, LinkedIn is checking over 25 plugins for the LinkedIn basic accounts. If you have the Recruiter Lite, RPS or Recruiter account, you are being checked for other sets of plugins on top of that.

UPDATE Oct 2018: https://www.josefkadlec.com/blog/the-complete-list-of-blacklisted-linkedin-plugins-vol-2

Here is the list of the plugins you are being checked for on the basic LinkedIn account:

  • Daxtra Magnet - Daxtra Magnet connects the Internet to your recruitment database.
  • SalesLoft Prospector (not in the Chrome Web Store anymore)
  • SalesLoft Connect - SalesLoft Connect enables users to more easily track communication and add people to workflows using Salesforce.com and Gmail.
  • Discoverly - Lookup contacts in Gmail, LinkedIn & Twitter. Works with Boomerang, Rapportive, Hubspot, Buffer, Hunter, Yesware & Right Inbox.
  • Ebsta for Bullhorn - ebsta for Bullhorn connecting you to Bullhorn in Google Chrome.
  • Ebsta for Salesforce - Ebsta for Salesforce in Google Chrome.
  • Prospect Hive - Build highly targeted prospect lists and find email addresses.
  • Social Lookup by TalentBin - Social Lookup by TalentBin® lets you take composite professional profiles with you wherever you go on the web.
  • Nimble Contacts Widget - The Nimble Smart Contacts App enables you to view social profiles, streams and signals related to that contact from a single screen.
  • AmazingHiring - This Chrome Extension allows you to easily find someone’s account on different social networks.
  • Colabo Extension - Colabo is the first AI Sales Assistant that learns new skills and workflows from its users.
  • StepWells - Colabo is a sales acceleration platform that harnesses next generation engagement channels like Linkedin and Meetup so you can better prospect and engage with leads.
  • Datananas (not in the Chrome Web Store anymore) - Datananas is a SaaS to create targeted lists of B2B prospects from professionnal social networks
  • LinkedIn-Hubspot Connector (not in the Chrome Web Store anymore) - The LinkedIn-Hubspot connector is connects the popular (and free) Hubspot CRM application to LinkedIn.
  • Data Scraper - Data Scraper extracts data out of HTML web pages and imports it into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
  • Lusha - Lusha is the easiest way to find email addresses & phone numbers from anywhere on the web, with just one click.
  • LinkedIn Email Lead Finder (not in the Chrome Web Store anymore)
  • Candidate.ai (not in the Chrome Web Store anymore) - candidate.ai is designed to super charge your LinkedIn recruiting and sourcing experience, the perfect recruiting assistant, and companion using the latest big data and AI technology!
  • Hunter - Hunter is the easiest way to find email addresses from anywhere on the web, with just one click.
  • iMacros for Chrome - Automate your web browser. Record and replay repetitious work.
  • Prophet - Uncover more information about people. Prophet finds emails, phone numbers, social profiles and more.
  • LeadIQ Lead Capture - LeadIQ lead capture tool helps you find prospects 10x faster.
  • Hiretual - Boolean building + Contact finding + AI sourcing = Recruiter's best friend.
  • Prospect.io - Prospect.io is the sales Automation Platform for modern sales teams.
  • Skrapp - Find emails on Linkedin. Build targeted leads directory.
  • Slik Prospector (not in the Chrome Web Store anymore) - Slik Prospector is the simplest and most accurate way to find anyone's emails.
  • Email Finder - Email Address Finder - A sales tool to lookup, search and find email addresses by name in just one click.
  • One unidentified plugin

If you have the LinkedIn Recruiter Lite, LinkedIn RPS or LinkedIn Recruiter account, you are also being checked extra for having the following plugins installed:

What is LinkedIn’s motivation behind blocking profiles using any of the above mentioned browser plugins?

One reason is that various plugins can substitute premium LinkedIn features or execute actions which are in violation of the LinkedIn User Agreement, such as the scraping of user data. Further, they often violate the local state laws of storing personal data without users’ knowledge.

We cannot say that these extensions are illegal and having them installed ultimately leads to any sort of sanction.

We can only say that these plugins are on the LinkedIn radar and therefore their installation may be penalized in some way. Even if there is probably a more thorough algorithm to get your LinkedIn account completely busted.

If you have any other plugins which are not on this list, you are “safe” unless LinkedIn updates the tracking procedures.

Happy hunting!: )

Follow me (LI, TW, FB, IG) for more updates.

--josé

The author of this article is not an employee of LinkedIn or the Microsoft Corporation. Obviously!: )