LinkedIn allows AI search bots but serves empty profile data

Dry_Steak30 · reddit · 2026-09-01

Testing via curl reveals that LinkedIn blocks training crawlers like GPTBot (HTTP 999) but allows AI search bots like OAI-SearchBot (HTTP 200). However, parsing the returned HTML shows that critical information—job titles, employment dates, skills, and certifications—is missing or empty. The accessible data is limited to the name, employer, school, and outdated public posts. This suggests that AI assistants answering questions about professionals are not reasoning over full profiles but are hallucinating based on sparse, stale data.

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