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They changed a process to make it slower?! o.O 3 days sounds an awful lot as if human intervention were required. What purpose would this serve?

by zeeed 11y ago

georgemcbay 11y ago
"What purpose would this serve?" Lock-in is the only answer that makes any kind of rational sense. The harder you make it to get your data out of any software/website the more friction you add to people who may want to try alternatives.
JohnTHaller 11y ago
One optimistic possibility is so that if you leave your LinkedIn account logged in on a computer somewhere, another individual can't immediately export all your contacts, which could have competitive or security implications. It takes multiple days and you get notification of it happening.
- coddingtonbear 11y ago
  I think you've hit the nail on the head, here.
  - georgemcbay 11y ago
    Extremely unlikely. I'm sticking with the non-optimistic theory. If it were really about protecting user privacy they could just have you re-enter your password to download the contacts, which is the industry standard thing to do when someone is logged in but doing something you think needs extra protection against them having accidentally left themselves logged in on a public system. 3 days is a good number for someone rage-quitting to let it slip off their radar and just lazily remain a user, not really a useful time period for security purposes.
jlees 11y ago
Since LinkedIn shut off their contacts APIs, folks have been looking for other ways to get at LinkedIn connections data. Export is an obvious solution - even though it requires some friction on the part of the end user, people are often willing to jump through a couple hoops if your app solves a real pain they have. By increasing the friction, people developing apps which try to make use of LinkedIn data have to try harder and inflict more friction on their users, hopefully (in LinkedIn's eyes) shutting down more of those apps for good.

They changed a process to make it slower?! o.O 3 days sounds an awful lot as if human intervention were required. What purpose would this serve?

by zeeed 11y ago

They changed a process to make it slower?! o.O 3 days sounds an awful lot as if human intervention were required. What purpose would this serve?

georgemcbay 11y ago

"What purpose would this serve?" Lock-in is the only answer that makes any kind of rational sense. The harder you make it to get your data out of any software/website the more friction you add to people who may want to try alternatives.

JohnTHaller 11y ago

One optimistic possibility is so that if you leave your LinkedIn account logged in on a computer somewhere, another individual can't immediately export all your contacts, which could have competitive or security implications. It takes multiple days and you get notification of it happening.

coddingtonbear 11y ago
I think you've hit the nail on the head, here.
- georgemcbay 11y ago
  Extremely unlikely. I'm sticking with the non-optimistic theory. If it were really about protecting user privacy they could just have you re-enter your password to download the contacts, which is the industry standard thing to do when someone is logged in but doing something you think needs extra protection against them having accidentally left themselves logged in on a public system. 3 days is a good number for someone rage-quitting to let it slip off their radar and just lazily remain a user, not really a useful time period for security purposes.

jlees 11y ago

Since LinkedIn shut off their contacts APIs, folks have been looking for other ways to get at LinkedIn connections data. Export is an obvious solution - even though it requires some friction on the part of the end user, people are often willing to jump through a couple hoops if your app solves a real pain they have. By increasing the friction, people developing apps which try to make use of LinkedIn data have to try harder and inflict more friction on their users, hopefully (in LinkedIn's eyes) shutting down more of those apps for good.