The emails of LinkedIn members have been exposed via a browser extension that exposes contact details from the business-based social network.
The Sell Hack extension for Google Chrome lets users view other LinkedIn members’ email addresses without first having to connect on the social networking site.
The extension adds a Hack In button to users’ profiles, which when clicked is supposed to reveal their email address – although in our brief tests, it merely provided an error message saying the service was suffering from heavy demand.
Sell Hack is not available through the Chrome Web Store, but can be freely downloaded from the developer’s own site.
According to the BBC, LinkedIn has sent the operators a cease and desist notice, but the site and the extension remain online.
“We are doing everything we can to shut Sell Hack down,” a LinkedIn spokesperson told the BBC. “On 31 March LinkedIn’s legal team delivered Sell Hack a cease-and-desist letter as a result of several violations.”
“LinkedIn members who downloaded Sell Hack should uninstall it immediately and contact Sell Hack requesting that their data be deleted.”