Pin.com LinkedIn Banned

Key Takeaway: In September 2026, LinkedIn removed the company page of AI recruiting startup Pin (pin.com) and the profile of its CEO, Steven Lu. LinkedIn told ERE it "takes action when necessary to prevent our members' information from being scraped and used without their consent." The removal is only part of the story: Pin's sales pitch on sourcing, LinkedIn automation, pricing and performance does not match Pin's own documentation, its own past pages or how Indeed actually works.

Pin sells itself as an AI recruiter that searches "850M+ profiles across dozens of data sources." In mid-September 2026, its LinkedIn company page disappeared. So did the profile of its founder and CEO. Within a month, two other recruiting tech companies, Gem and Neuroscale, lost their pages too.

Here is what is on the record, what Pin has said, and what it means if you use Pin today.

What Pin tells buyers vs what is actually true

Pin markets itself as the best AI recruiting platform. Put its claims next to its own docs, its own old web pages and its data sources, and a different picture appears.

A buyer who signed up on Pin's pitch may think they are getting automated LinkedIn outreach, Indeed candidates and a free monthly allowance. Pin's own documentation says otherwise.

What happened to Pin's LinkedIn page?

Pin's CEO confirmed the removal himself. In a September 12 post on Pin's blog, Steven Lu wrote: "You may have noticed Pin's LinkedIn company page and my profile are currently unavailable." He added that "LinkedIn's team raised concerns about our presence on their platform."

Four days later Pin published a longer update that opened with: "By now, you've probably seen that Pin's page and my profile are no longer on LinkedIn." According to ERE, that update featured a video with an AI-generated "new HD version" of Lu, who said "LinkedIn doesn't get to determine who's in business or not."

As of October 13, 2026, ERE reported that visitors to Pin's company page get LinkedIn's "Page not found" message, and that Lu's personal profile "has been gone from the platform for more than a month."

Why did LinkedIn remove Pin?

LinkedIn has not named the exact policy. But when ERE asked about the removals, a LinkedIn spokesperson said: "LinkedIn takes action when necessary to prevent our members' information from being scraped and used without their consent."

LinkedIn's User Agreement bans, among other things:

• Using "crawlers, browser plugins and add-ons" to scrape the site
• Using bots to access LinkedIn or send messages
• Using LinkedIn information obtained "through third parties (such as search tools or data aggregators or brokers)" without the owner's consent

Pin has not said which concern LinkedIn raised. ERE reported that none of the affected companies would say why they were removed.

What we do know is what Pin has told buyers about LinkedIn over time:

The automatic LinkedIn connection-request language was gone from Pin's pricing page by September 2026, around the time its LinkedIn page came down.

Pin is not the only one

ERE and recruiter Brano Vargic both documented the same pattern: Pin went first in mid-September, then Gem's page went by late September, then Neuroscale (maker of Arbi) in early October. ERE's David Manaster summed it up: "Recruiting technology startups are getting erased from LinkedIn."

The timing matters. On September 29, LinkedIn launched Hiring Assistant 2, its own AI recruiting agent, and said its agentic hiring products had passed a $450 million annual revenue run rate. Tools that depend on LinkedIn data are now competing with LinkedIn directly.

What does this mean for Pin customers?

Pin says "customer accounts are unaffected." That refers to Pin accounts. It does not cover your own LinkedIn account.

ERE reported that "some recruiting teams that use these and similar tools are concerned about facing similar repercussions," and that it is "unclear exactly what lines were crossed." If LinkedIn is acting against tools over scraping and consent, recruiters who run LinkedIn steps from those tools are the next obvious exposure.

Some Pin users say they have already felt it. One recruiter told Noon on a June 2026 call that within a couple days of connecting her LinkedIn account to Pin, she "got flagged for the first time ever." She now runs Pin for email only.

Pin's own sales pitch has also raised eyebrows. In a July 2026 sales demo, a Pin rep said Pin could "automate emails, LinkedIn connection requests, LinkedIn messaging" and "set it and forget it." Pin's current help docs describe LinkedIn steps as manual reminders. The same rep said Pin's team had helped LinkedIn build its "bot police force" and added: "we also know how to circumvent it."

Does Pin source from Indeed?

Pin's website names LinkedIn, GitHub, Crunchbase, Kaggle and "dozens of data sources." It never names Indeed. Pin's sales team tells a different story. A recruiter who evaluated Pin told Noon in July 2026 that "Pin says it's obviously LinkedIn, Indeed, and a few other bits and pieces." In a July 2026 Pin sales demo, a Pin rep listed "LinkedIn, but also Indeed, Monster, Crunchbase, GitHub, Stack Overflow, Dice."

That claim is hard to square with how Indeed works:

• Indeed's resume database is a paid Indeed product. Employers search Indeed resumes through Indeed Smart Sourcing, which Indeed sells for $520 a month (or $4,992 a year) with 100 contacts per month and $5.20 per extra contact.
• Indeed has no public resume search API. Indeed's developer API catalog covers job postings, Indeed Apply applications, candidate and disposition sync, and Hiring Lab labor data. There is no API for searching Indeed resumes.
• Indeed bans scraping. Indeed's terms say resume search is "for the sole purpose of contacting individuals regarding relevant Job Ads. Any other use, including scraping the database or sending messages in a 'spam like manner,' is strictly prohibited and will result in termination of your access."
• Pin has never announced an Indeed partnership. Nothing on pin.com, in Pin's docs or in its llms.txt file mentions Indeed.

So there is no public, permitted way for a third-party tool like Pin to pull candidates from Indeed's resume database, and Pin has never explained how it would. If a Pin rep tells you Pin sources from Indeed, ask them to show you a candidate in a live demo with Indeed listed as the source, and to tell you whether you need your own Indeed Smart Sourcing seat for it to work.

Other problems with Pin

The LinkedIn removal is the headline, but it is not the only issue buyers should weigh. (For the full product breakdown, see our Pin review and Pin pricing guide.)

• Only email is automated. Pin's own docs say "sending texts, placing calls, and completing custom tasks are manual steps." LinkedIn steps are reminders to do it yourself.
• Credits run out. Contact lookups cost credits, unused credits don't roll over, and extra packs cost $50 per 250 (Pin docs).
• Plans keep changing. Pin changed its plan lineup four times between April and October 2026 (Wayback Machine captures of pin.com/pricing). Solo is billed annually only.
• Thin review base. Pin has 7 reviews on Trustpilot, and Trustpilot warns they "may not be representative."
• Candidate consent. Pin's database holds 850M+ profiles. As Vargic points out, most of those people never chose to be in it, and under GDPR Article 14 companies that collect personal data indirectly generally have to tell the people involved.

Pin vs Noon

Noon's AI recruiter finds candidates across the web, ranks them against your role, and reaches out by email and SMS, with no credits and no seat limits. See the full Noon vs Pin comparison, or book a demo to see Noon on your open roles.

FAQ

Was Pin banned from LinkedIn? Pin's LinkedIn company page and its CEO's profile were removed in September 2026 and still showed "Page not found" as of October 13, 2026, per ERE. Pin says LinkedIn "raised concerns about our presence" and that it is working to resolve them.

Why was Pin removed from LinkedIn? LinkedIn has not named the specific policy. Its spokesperson told ERE that LinkedIn "takes action when necessary to prevent our members' information from being scraped and used without their consent."

Is Pin still working? Pin says its product is fully operational and that it serves more than 2,000 recruiting teams.

Can using Pin get my LinkedIn account banned? There is no public statement from LinkedIn either way. ERE reported that some teams using these tools are worried about similar repercussions. If you use LinkedIn steps alongside any third-party tool, read LinkedIn's User Agreement.

Does Pin source candidates from Indeed? Pin's website does not list Indeed as a source, though Pin sales reps have told prospects it does. Indeed sells resume search only through its own paid Smart Sourcing plan, offers no public resume search API and prohibits scraping its database.

What is a good Pin alternative? Noon is an autonomous AI recruiter that sources across the web and runs automated email and SMS outreach, on one unlimited plan.

About the author

Rey Sivji is Head of Growth at Noon AI and researched this article from Pin's own pages, archived copies of pin.com, news coverage and recruiter calls. Have a correction or a source to add? Email rey@noon.ai.