LinkedIn's Built-In Export: Best for Your Own Connections
LinkedIn provides a native data export that lets you download your first-degree connections as a CSV. Go to Settings & Privacy → Data Privacy → How LinkedIn uses your data → Get a copy of your data, select the Connections checkbox, and request the export. LinkedIn delivers the file within 24 hours — usually much faster.
The export includes each connection's first name, last name, email address (only if they have made it visible to connections), current company name, current job title, and the date you connected. For salespeople doing outreach to their existing network or for CRM synchronization, this is the easiest and most legitimate method. The limitation is scope: it only covers your 1st-degree connections, and many users set their email to hidden.
- First Name + Last Name
- Email address (only if visible to connections)
- Current Company
- Current Job Title
- Connection Date
Exporting LinkedIn Search Results with DataLens
For prospect lists, competitor analysis, or targeting people outside your existing network, the built-in export won't help — it only covers people you're already connected to. The alternative is to run a LinkedIn people search with your target filters (job title, company, industry, geography, seniority level) and extract the visible card data using DataLens.
Open a LinkedIn people search in Chrome, apply your filters, and launch DataLens from the browser toolbar. The AI detects the profile card grid and maps visible fields — full name, headline, current company, location, and connection degree — to extraction columns. Scroll through multiple pages of results to accumulate more profiles, then export to CSV or Excel. The resulting list is ideal for identifying high-relevance prospects to then connect with organically.
- Full Name
- Job Title / Headline
- Current Company
- Location (City, Country)
- Connection Degree (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
- Profile URL
Pro Tip
LinkedIn does not display email addresses in search results — you will need a separate enrichment tool like Hunter.io, Apollo, or Clay to find professional emails from the profile URLs or company domains you collect.
Extracting Data from Company Employee Pages
For account-based prospecting — identifying all decision-makers at a specific target company — LinkedIn company pages display an employee grid you can browse and extract. Open a company's LinkedIn page, navigate to the People tab, and filter by department or seniority. DataLens extracts every visible employee profile row: name, role, mutual connections, and profile URL.
This is particularly useful for enterprise SaaS sales teams who need to multi-thread deals across a buying committee. A list of 15 relevant stakeholders at a target account, with their LinkedIn profile URLs, gives you a research starting point that can be enriched with emails and phone numbers before outreach begins.
Using LinkedIn Data Responsibly
LinkedIn's terms of service restrict automated data collection and prohibit scraping at scale. DataLens operates as a manual browsing assistant — it extracts data at the speed of human scrolling, within an active logged-in session — which distinguishes it from bot-based scrapers. Nevertheless, LinkedIn actively monitors for unusual navigation patterns, and high-volume extraction activity can trigger account warnings or restrictions.
For personal research and targeted prospecting — reviewing a few hundred profiles over the course of a workday — the risk is minimal. For large-scale systematic extraction, consider using LinkedIn's official API products (LinkedIn Sales Navigator has an API for enterprise customers) or compliant data providers who have licensing agreements with LinkedIn. Whatever data you collect, use it in compliance with GDPR (for EU contacts) and CAN-SPAM (for US email outreach).