Skip to main content

Is it safe to use Linked Helper? Is it detectable?

Nick
Updated

The short answers are "Yes, it is safe" and "No, we believe it is not detectable", but you probably would like to know all the details to be more confident, and we are happy to share them in order for our short answer not to be unfounded.

Why we think Linked Helper is safe

We have been on the market for more than six years, constantly improving our ways of protection against LinkedIn detection. The fact that the first version of the software was not a standalone program but a Chrome extension imposed certain restrictions such as:

  • other extensions can interrupt Linked Helper's work and modify HTTP requests;
  • all Linked Helper data is stored in Chome cache, hence there is a chance to lose the data due to the cache being cleared;
  • Linked Helper has to inject some code into a LinkedIn web page in order to display a widget;
  • etc.

All the above drawbacks were taken into consideration, and recently we released Linked Helper 2 -  a new standalone program with terrific new features, such as built-in CRM, automated drip campaigns with smart replies detection, Zapier and Webhook integrations, etc. Since a new version was released, it became extremely hard, if not impossible, to technically detect Linked Helper 2, and here is why:

 

1. No code is injected into the LinkedIn web page

Extensions can be detected because they inject their code into the LinkedIn page. Linked Helper 2 is not an extension, but a separate standalone program with all the controls placed out of the LinkedIn web page:

 

When a LinkedIn page is opened in Chrome browser, Web Worker,  a JavaScript code from LinkedIn, is loaded into the PC memory and regularly archives the web page and sends it to LinkedIn servers for analyzing. There a traces of Chrome extensions are searched within the elements of LinkedIn page.

 

2. No permanent Chrome Web Store IDs or files

When Chrome extension is installed, it saves some of its files locally, i.e. an icon or a pictures. LinkedIn algorithm checks local files of all installed extensions by making requests to unique resources associated with the extensions that are not approved by LinkedIn. Knowing the extension's ID in Chrome Web Store and having a list of files that are usually installed along with the extensions, LinkedIn can easily understand whether certain extension is installed.

Being a browser itself, Linked Helper doesn't have Chrome Web Store ID and it's not possible for LinkedIn to find it.

 

3. LinkedIn API is not used

Many LinkedIn automation tools claimed to be more secure due to the fact that they are cloud solutions. That's not always true. Cloud solutions that work with LinkedIn API can be detected by comparing the API requests map of a LinkedIn account to the API request map of an ideal model of such user. Such automation tools cannot imitate the whole API requests map, which is generated by the LinkedIn webpage and sent to the LinkedIn server. They repeat only those API requests which they need in order to send a message or invitation, etc. As a result, they can be detected by LinkedIn.

Linked Helper does not use LinkedIn API, it works on your PC as a smart browser imitating human behavior, i.e. clicking buttons as a real person would do.

 

4. Each LinkedIn instance has randomized fingerprints

As an additional layer of protection, each LinkedIn instance generates random fingerprints, which makes it hard to tell that accounts are used on the same PC, and from a LinkedIn point of view, it will look like they are all run on different machines.

 

5. Each LinkedIn account has its own set of cache and cookies 

LinkedIn can detect that you are managing several LinkedIn accounts in one browser instance. In order to avoid such detection, each LinkedIn account is managed in a separate instance which has its own cache and cookies data.

Moreover, Linked Helper will log you out if you try to use another LinkedIn account in the current instance. For example, here I tried to log in with Eleanor LinkedIn account (instance ID #1287) into the new instance with ID #1296:

 

6. Each LinkedIn instance can have a separate IP address

LinkedIn can detect that several LinkedIn accounts are being accessed from one and the same IP address. In order to hide that fact, you can assign a separate proxy (IP addresses must be purchased separately from any other third-party provider) to each Instance so that each LinkedIn account has its own IP address:

mceclip3.png

 

7. In-page navigation

LinkedIn checks how profiles' pages are opened, and it can log you out if you open a lot of pages one after another via direct links as usually only bots do. Linked Helper uses in-page navigation and searches for profiles as a human: enters names in the search bar and clicks the needed profile:

mceclip4.png

 

8. Daily limits per all campaigns

LinkedIn measures your daily activity. In order to stay below the radar, we recommend our customers to follow the daily recommended limit which is 150 actions a day per all campaigns of a LinkedIn account you manage, provided that your LinkedIn account is older than one year.

By default, Linked Helper not just limits your daily activity, but it limits the total number of actions made in the last 24 hours, ensuring that there won't be a situation when 300 actions are made within a couple of hours just because you were running Linked Helper during the time when the counter resets to zero:

mceclip5.png

 

9. Randomized timeouts between every step

LinkedIn measures your activity made within a short period of time. A real person never makes equal pauses between visiting each profile page, between clicking the Connect button, pasting a message, and sending the invite.

Linked Helper imitates human behavior making random pauses between each step, as well as it can type message templates just like a real human. You can see this settings when Action steps delays plug-in is installed. When it is not installed, default settings are still applied yet are not visible:

mceclip6.png

 

Precautions

As it was already mentioned, LinkedIn is not able to detect Linked Helper via technical ways, but they also try to detect automation tools using behavioral analysis (you can learn more from this article). Linked Helper has good protection against that as well (see p. Daily limits per all campaigns and Randomized timeouts between every step of this article), but we are not able to control your activity in the LinkedIn account outside Linked Helper, and cannot forbid you to change the default settings of timeouts and/or any limit, you are free to change them as per your goals even though we do not recommend increasing them.

It is a common fallacy among many LinkedIn users, fueled by not-so knowledgeable LinkedIn coaches, that if you work on LinkedIn manually, you will never get banned. In fact, we saw many cases (and managed to recreate them) when LinkedIn gives you a warning about using automation tools or logs you out when you visit a lot of profile pages manually navigating via opening the URL, not via searching profile in LinkedIn. That's why we added some default limits to stop Linked Helper from doing the unwanted extra activity.

Taking into account all above written, in order to protect your LinkedIn account, please:

_____________________________________

 

Here are some more useful articles from our blog:

 

____________________________________________________________________________________

You can try the software for free during 14 days - download it and activate a free trial.

Official website   Our blog   YouTube   Facebook   Instagram   WhatsApp   Email: info@linkedhelper.com

Related articles

Powered by Zendesk