LinkedIn has intensified its enforcement efforts against companies accused of violating its data protection policies, with Seamless.AI and Apollo.io becoming the latest casualties. Removing their LinkedIn pages has sparked industry-wide discussions on the impact of data scraping, automation, and LinkedIn’s evolving enforcement strategies.
Why LinkedIn removed Seamless.AI and Apollo.io pages
Earlier today, LinkedIn users noticed that the official LinkedIn pages for Seamless.AI and Apollo.io had allegedly disappeared without warning. Conversations in Reddit threads and LinkedIn posts from professionals like Clark Barron and Benyamin Holley suggest that the removals were purportedly due to suspected violations of LinkedIn’s strict policies on scraping and automation.
Both companies are known for offering lead generation tools, including Chrome extensions designed to help sales professionals automate outreach and prospecting. While these tools simplify the process, their functionality may intersect with LinkedIn’s policies on data extraction, which prohibit unauthorized access to user information.
According to a LinkedIn post by Benyamin Holley, sources confirmed that LinkedIn permanently removed the LinkedIn pages of Seamless.AI and Apollo.io due to direct violations of the platform’s policies. While Apollo.io has not issued a statement, its page’s disappearance suggests a similar enforcement action was taken.
LinkedIn’s clear stance on data scraping and automation
LinkedIn has long maintained a strict stance against unauthorized data extraction, but recent actions indicate a stronger commitment to enforcement.
According to LinkedIn’s official help documentation, the platform does not permit the use of any third-party software that engages in:
- Scraping user profiles, connections, or any other platform data
- Automating activity, including sending messages, adding contacts, or engaging with content
- Modifying LinkedIn’s interface, such as hiding ads or changing the layout
- Driving fake engagement, such as artificially boosting likes, shares, or comments
- Bypassing LinkedIn’s security measures or search limits
LinkedIn explicitly bans crawlers, bots, browser plug-ins, and extensions that extract or automate any form of interaction on its platform. The company also prohibits using fake accounts, algorithm manipulation, and security circumvention, all of which could lead to account bans, tool shutdowns, or legal consequences.
“”Any member who uses tools for such purposes is in violation of the User Agreement. This means that they risk having their accounts restricted or shut down.””
LinkedIn’s Trust & Safety Team
LinkedIn Help
AI-powered enforcement: How LinkedIn detects violations
LinkedIn isn’t just relying on manual enforcement. It has built advanced AI-powered systems to detect and prevent abusive behavior patterns automatically.
A recent LinkedIn Engineering blog post highlights how the company has developed deep learning models that analyze member activity sequences to flag suspicious behaviors. These AI-driven enforcement tools assess:
- The frequency and scale of data requests (to detect scraping attempts)
- Irregular interaction patterns (to identify bot-like behavior)
- Unusual API activity (to catch unauthorized automation)
By leveraging AI and behavioral analytics, LinkedIn can proactively identify and restrict tools that violate its policies, even before they gain widespread use.
A history of legal battles against scraping
The enforcement actions against Seamless.AI and Apollo.io align with LinkedIn’s broader legal strategy to combat unauthorized data scraping.
The hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn Case
In a landmark case, LinkedIn sued hiQ Labs for scraping publicly available LinkedIn profiles. The Ninth Circuit initially ruled that scraping public data does not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), but LinkedIn has continued to push back through legal appeals.
The 2022 Mantheos Lawsuit
LinkedIn successfully shut down Singapore-based company Mantheos Ptd. Ltd, which was found to be scraping LinkedIn’s member profile data. As part of the legal settlement, Mantheos agreed to permanently delete all scraped data, cease scraping activities, and destroy its software.
These cases underscore LinkedIn’s aggressive legal stance against unauthorized data access. Given this history of legal actions, other companies engaging in similar data extraction practices may be at high risk of enforcement.
The impact on sales intelligence platforms
The removal of Seamless.AI and Apollo.io’s LinkedIn pages is a clear warning to other sales tech companies that rely heavily on LinkedIn data. The questions now are:
- Will LinkedIn take further action against other lead generation platforms?
- Are other tools like Lusha, ZoomInfo, and Cognism at risk?
- How can companies adapt to LinkedIn’s increasing enforcement?
For now, businesses and sales professionals that depend on LinkedIn-integrated tools should reassess their data practices. Given LinkedIn’s ability to automate policy enforcement using AI and its history of legal action, this crackdown could be the start of a much broader purge of unauthorized data scraping tools.
A sign of stricter regulations to come?
The removal of Seamless.AI and Apollo.io’s LinkedIn pages is more than a one-off event. It signals LinkedIn’s growing focus on enforcing data privacy and security policies.
With AI-powered detection mechanisms and stronger legal precedent, LinkedIn sends a clear message to companies and individuals that scraping or automating activity on its platform will not be tolerated.
This may begin a major shift for sales professionals, marketers, and lead generation companies, where compliance, transparency, and ethical data usage will become essential for survival.
Disclaimer: We’re covering this topic based solely on publicly available discussions on LinkedIn and Reddit, and we don’t have confirmation on the exact reasons behind the removal of these pages. We await further developments on this issue and will update this post as more information becomes available.
