last updated · 2026-05-11

The LinkedIn ToS, honestly.

If you have read this far you know the question. Here is the answer, in three pieces, with no spin. If after reading this you decide xlinked is not for you, that is the right call — and the doc has done its job.

1. What LinkedIn says

The LinkedIn User Agreement prohibits automated access. Section 8.2 forbids scraping, crawling, and other automated means. The terms apply to every user. There is no exception for read-only, rate-limited, or human-pace access. The prohibition is categorical.

2. What xlinked does

The xlinked node performs automated reads on your LinkedIn session. We rate-limit, scope, and pace them to stay inside human power-user bands — but they are automated. We are inside the zone the User Agreement prohibits.

We will not tell you we are ToS-compliant. We aren't.

3. Why we built it anyway

• The data is public. Every read returns data LinkedIn shows to a logged-in user. We do not unlock private fields, bypass paywalls, or scrape inboxes.
• The footprint is human-shaped. Twenty reads per hour, quiet hours, geo-stable — under what anti-abuse models typically flag. Restrictions on lender accounts are rare, but non-zero.
• The economics are aligned. Scrapers maximize extraction before burn. We pay lenders to stay online for years; getting caught is bad for us.

What we promise if your account gets paused

It happens. When it does:

• You disconnect from xlinked immediately — one click.
• Accrued payout for the current month settles in full.
• If the restriction was caused by xlinked behavior (provable from the audit log), we add a $200 hardship payment.
• If you contest with LinkedIn and lose the account permanently, we add $800. We still wrote the policy.

The only honest disclaimer