After receiving a cease-and-desist letter from LinkedIn (LNKD), the programmers behind Sell Hack are apparently feeling contrite.
Sell Hack is a free browser plugin that enables users to access the email addresses of LinkedIn members to whom they aren’t connected — something even Premium LinkedIn users can’t do. LinkedIn was pretty peeved upon learning about Sell Hack. They issued a statement asking users who downloaded Sell Hack to delete it, and implying that such third-party programs could be used to sell information.
Now, Sell Hack has retaliated with a blog post that reminds us quite a bit of the kid who rickrolled Vine, then felt really bad about it. The Sell Hackers don’t seem to think they did anything wrong; they’re just some zany dads from the Midwest trying to create fun new computer programs, they say. Here’s some of their statement:
– We only processed publicly visible data from LinkedIn based on your profile permissions…all of which has been deleted.
– LinkedIn stated: “No member data has been put at risk as a result of Sell Hack.”
– We are building a better product that does not conflict with LinkedIn’s TOS.
– We’ve been described as sneaky, nefarious, no good, not ‘legitimate’ amongst other references by some. We’re not. We’re dads from the midwest who like to build web and mobile products that people use.
– Recently been lauded with love (196x), awesome (87x) , ‘you guys f*cking rock’ (3x) amongst others.
There hasn’t been another update, and Sell Hack still doesn’t appear to be working. Guess you’ll just have to go back to guessing potential employers’ email addresses and dealing with the resultant MAILER-DAEMON error emails.