Beyond our GDPR and Terms of Service pages, we aim to address a frequently asked question, in plain English: How does Poked ensure the safety of my LinkedIn account?
We fully understand the significant value that your LinkedIn profile holds for you, your career, and your organization. With this in mind, we present 10 reasons why we believe you can confidently, technically and legally, entrust your LinkedIn account to Poked:
#1. Poked focuses on 1st-degree connections.
In the vast world of LinkedIn, active users find themselves connected to thousands of “contacts”, many of whom remain strangers. Poked’s mission is to help professionals cultivate stronger business relationships. By focusing on quality over quantity, we're building a tool designed to empower you to do the same.
#2. Good vs Bad automation.
Having worked for major sales automation softwares (Phantombuster, TexAu) has taught us to distinguish between good and bad automation: Connection requests, unsolicited messages, counterfeit likes and comments have no place at Poked. We concentrate on fostering genuine 1st-degree connections, aligning with LinkedIn’s goal to strengthen relationships.
#3. What LinkedIn Terms actually say.
Microsoft and LinkedIn have a reputation for being cautious with their data. Unsurprisingly, LinkedIn's Terms state that the use of any software or browser extension that scrapes or automates LinkedIn data is not permitted. While this technically includes Poked and hundreds of other software tools used by millions daily, it's important to examine the broader context.
#4. What actually happens.
LinkedIn is a complex platform, part social media and part sales/recruiting tool (Sales Navigator, LinkedIn Recruiter). One aspect generates data, the other sells it. This delicate balancing act becomes evident when considering, for instance, that LinkedIn Sales Navigator does not provide email addresses, despite their value to salespeople. To bridge this gap, hundreds of third-party software solutions, including Poked, have emerged, while LinkedIn looks the other way.
#5. Law & GDPR.
Poked is GDPR compliant software built in Paris, France. Every piece of data accessible through Poked is information you could have manually extracted from your LinkedIn account. Should you need access to your data or wish to have your account and all associated data deleted, simply contact us anytime at team@pokedhq.com.
#6. We don’t sell your data, ever.
Let's be clear: we do not sell your data. The only data we handle is information that you could have manually copied from LinkedIn. We do not share, nor do we sell, any of this data with third parties. We've never done it, and we never plan to.
#7. Safety-first tech design
Other LinkedIn software solutions use either a local Chrome extension (safe but not operational when your laptop is off) or a cloud solution (24/7 operational but likely to hit LinkedIn limitations). At Poked, we've designed a hybrid solution, utilizing a local Chrome extension for 90% of actions and a remote server for time-sensitive actions. This means Poked operates reliably around the clock, without risking LinkedIn logouts.
#8. Safety limits
Drawing on our extensive experience in sales automation, we've set hard limits on how many actions you can take in a day. Why, you may ask? Picture attempting to send 1,000 LinkedIn messages in an hour - it seems excessive, right? It is. Such activity would trip LinkedIn's safety triggers and put your account at risk. To avert this, Poked ensures you stay within safe parameters. If you schedule too many actions within an hour, Poked will thoughtfully reschedules the surplus to the next available time slot.
#9. Smart Profile Scrapping
Keeping your LinkedIn connections' data current is a time-consuming process. To streamline this, if you update a connection's profile, that data will be made available for Poked users that are in 1st-degree relationship with that same profile. This makes Poked lighter and safer for your LinkedIn account. This approach is currently being tested in Poked's beta version and will become optional in the future.
#10. It’s an ongoing discussion
Our medium-term goal is for Poked to become an official Microsoft LinkedIn partner. We've begun dialogues with the LinkedIn team, and while we're currently too small to gain direct attention, other larger companies have successfully negotiated access to the APIs we need. We're striving towards this goal while ensuring we meet the security standards such a partnership demands.
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So far, none of our users has had their LinkedIn profile suspended.
And we're dedicated to keeping it that way.
Jules Maregiano & François Rouault