Is Web Scraping Illegal?

Web scraping is the act of automatically extracting data from websites. When done correctly and ethically, web scraping can provide a range of benefits for a business. But in some cases, web scraping activities can violate domestic and international laws.

Being aware of the legalities surrounding web scraping and the pros and cons of the act itself is crucial for any online business. The information in this guide will help you stay on the right side of the law and protect yourself from malicious web scrapers.

Key Takeaways

• Web scraping is the automated collection of data and content from web pages.
• Many businesses use web scraping activities for a variety of legal, useful purposes.
• There are some instances where web scraping violates international and domestic laws.
• The web scraping industry was estimated to be worth US $4.9 billion in 2023.
• Malicious web scrapers have targeted major sites like Facebook and LinkedIn.
• If your business has been targeted by malicious web scrapers, there are measures you can take to protect your data.

How Web Scraping Works

Web scraping is an automated process done using AI-powered algorithms known as crawlers to search the web for data sets, which is then collected by a scraper bot. Web scraping tools such as application programming interfaces (APIs) are sometimes used as an alternative or complementary approach to traditional web scraping techniques. Python is currently the most popular coding language used to develop web scrapers and crawlers.

Web scraping refers only to the process of extracting data from websites. Data scraping is a much broader term and is used to describe the collection of data from any digital source, such as websites, databases, APIs, and files. Content scraping focuses specifically on extracting and copying textual or multimedia content from websites.

Is web scraping illegal in 2024?

The question of whether or not web scraping is a legal activity has been hotly debated for many years. It’s not technically illegal to conduct web scraping activities in most countries. Amazon even has dedicated APIs to assist people in scraping public data from the site for price comparison purposes. Legal problems, however, can arise if data is collected and then used in a manner that contravenes certain laws. Also, some websites explicitly prohibit or restrict web scraping activities. Violating these terms could also lead to legal consequences.

Web scraping activities that may violate laws or regulations include:

• Logging into a website and downloading data. This may constitute a breach of the site’s Terms of Service (ToS) if they specifically prohibit the automated collection of data.
• Collecting personal data or sensitive information without consent.
• Scraping copyrighted or proprietary content without explicit consent.
• Scraping data from restricted or private areas of a website.
• Reselling or distributing scraped data.
• Collecting data for discriminatory, unethical, or malicious purposes (such as spam, phishing, or instigating DDoS attacks).
• Unauthorized scraping of government websites or databases.

The specific legal implications of web scraping and data collection can vary. The severity of any penalties depends on the legal jurisdiction, the nature of the data being scraped, and the methods used to collect data.

What are the laws relating to web scraping?

While it’s legal to collect publicly available information from public websites, web scraping activities may violate fair use laws, privacy laws, and copyright laws, or constitute a breach of contract. At the time of writing, no specific laws prohibit web scraping in the United States, Europe, or Asia. However, most countries have legal frameworks that could potentially apply to web scraping activities.

Some of the most important laws relating to web scraping include:

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)

The CFAA is a federal cybersecurity bill enacted in 1986 as an amendment to an existing computer fraud law. Although there is no specific mention of web scraping, the CFAA does prohibit unauthorized access to protected computer systems and networks. Under the CFAA, unauthorized web scraping could be considered a violation of the law. especially if it involves circumventing access controls or causes harm.

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)

The CCPA is a state law that was enacted in 2018. It specifically regulates how businesses can collect and process the personal information of Californian residents. The CCP has a very broad definition of personal information. Much of the data that is extracted during web scraping can fall under this definition. Any business that scrapes data belonging to residents of California must comply with the CCPA.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK Data Protection Act

In 2018 the European Union enacted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR regulates how companies collect, store, and process personal information. After Brexit, the UK adopted its version of the GDPR known as the UK Data Protection Act or UK GDPR.

Collecting and processing personal data without explicit consent can violate the GDPR and the UK GDPR. Any business that operates in the UK or Europe or processes data from customers based in the UK or Europe must abide by the GDPR and the UK GDPR.

What are the penalties for unlawful web scraping?

Web scraping can result in civil lawsuits for breach of contract (violating terms of service), trespassing, copyright infringement, or other legal claims. Copyright infringement penalties can be as high as US $150,000 if the use of the work was not authorized by the copyright holder. Breaching the CFAA can result in penalties such as fines, restitution, and even imprisonment.

The GDPR and the UK Data Protection Act apply penalties on a case-by-case basis, but these can be severe. Breaches of these acts can result in fines of up to €20 million or four percent of global annual revenue, whichever is higher.

It is also crucial to be aware of upcoming laws that may impact the legality of web scraping. Legislation to regulate AI technologies is currently being implemented in the European Union and may have a major impact on web scraping. In the United States, rulings from the Supreme Court and other courts on intellectual property and web data and congressional debates about a federal AI regulatory framework may affect web scraping practices.

What harm can web scraping do to your website?

Most instances of web scraping are done for legitimate reasons, such as market research, social media research, price monitoring, or content aggregation. However, not all web scraping is done ethically. Hackers use web scraping bots to steal copyrighted, proprietary, or sensitive information.

Malicious web scraping is often done to steal content that hackers use to create fake websites. Known as ‘spoofed’ sites, these duplicates are used to steal personal information or sell unwitting customers low-grade or counterfeit goods. Hackers can also use web scraping to commit ad fraud by publishing popular stolen content on a site and then running ads over it. When users, or bots, click on these ads it can result in payouts to the fraudsters from advertisers or direct users to spoofed websites.

Price scraping can be legitimate, for comparison sites, for instance, but it can also be done unethically. Some businesses scrape the prices of competitors so they can undercut them in the marketplace.

Email scraping is used to extract customer email addresses from an online business. The hackers then use the email list for phishing and spam campaigns.

Some web scrapers try to exploit vulnerabilities in a website’s security measures. This can result in data breaches, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, or other cybersecurity threats.

If you’re a site owner, having your data scraped can harm your business in several ways. When hackers republish content, it can damage the search engine optimization (SEO) and rankings of the target site. A fake site can be used to mimic your business and steal your customer’s personal data or payment information. This can result in severe reputational damage for a company.

Web scraping activities put a significant load on a target website’s server resources. The increased server load slows down the website’s performance, leading to a poor user experience for legitimate visitors. Web scrapers also use a lot of bandwidth, which can raise costs for the website owner and cause service disruptions if the bandwidth limit is exceeded.

Examples of Web Scraping

One of the most important cases relating to web scraping was the 2022 hiQ Labs vs. LinkedIn case. In 2017, LinkedIn sent a cease-and-desist letter to hiQ Labs, preventing them from scraping publicly available data from LinkedIn’s website. LinkedIn accused hiQ Labs of breaching the CFAA. hiQ appealed the cease and desist notice and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court. Eventually, the U.S. Ninth Circuit of Appeals made a landmark ruling for hiQ. The court found that using web scrapers to extract publicly accessible data is not a violation of the CFAA.

Another example is the recent web scraping case that Meta brought against the Israeli company Bright Data. Bright Data scraped data from Facebook and Instagram and used it as the basis for product marketing campaigns. The US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that scraping publicly available data was fair use and did not violate Meta, Facebook, or Instagram’s TOS. Meta’s case was thrown out.

Not all use cases are resolved in the defendant’s favor, however. In 2013 Craigslist sued a web scraping services company called 3taps for web scraping. 3taps ignored a cease and desist letter from Craigslist and went on scraping the site using rotating IP addresses and proxies. The Northern District of California Court found that 3taps did breach the CFAA and the company was ordered to pay damages of US $1 million.

How to Protect Your Site from Web Scrapers

The practice of web scraping will continue to reside in a legal grey area for some time. Because of this, online businesses are well advised to take precautions to guard against a scraping attack. Research has shown that 49.6% of internet traffic in 2023 was caused by bots, and many of them are used for unethical web scraping. It’s imperative for businesses to take measures to prevent web scraping.

You should regularly monitor your site for signs of user accounts with high activity levels but no corresponding purchases. High volumes of product views can also indicate bot activity. A competitor that has matched your prices exactly or a fake website that has stolen your content is also indicative of malicious web scraping activity.

If you suspect that your site has been targeted by web scrapers to extract data, there are actions you can take. A site owner can configure the instructions in the robots.txt file to prohibit crawling and scraping. You can also implement a browsewrap agreement with TOS that contains prohibitions or restrictions on web scraping activities. Other techniques include IP blocking, user verification challenges, rate limiting, and implementing technical countermeasures like honeypots or frequently changing website structures.

Perhaps the easiest and most effective way of protecting your site from scrapers is by using reputable bot detection and anti-crawler software. DataDome is a proven solution that detects and blocks bots from accessing your data. Our software uses powerful AI and machine learning algorithms and automation to detect and block bot activity in less than 2 milliseconds.

• The North American motion control distribution company Hydradyne partnered with DataDome to protect its proprietary data from scraper bots.
• The major Australian property portal Real Estate View was having issues with scrapers stealing content. DataDome bot protection software was able to successfully block the bots and keep Real Estate View’s data safe.

Discover how DataDome can protect your website from malicious web scraping and bots. Book a live demo today.

FAQs

Is web scraping illegal?

Web scraping is not in itself illegal. How scraped data is used may violate privacy laws and copyright laws.

How can I scrape data legally?

Always abide by a site’s TOS and the restrictions placed in the robots.txt file. Be easily identifiable and adhere to request rate limits. Comply with applicable laws such as the GDPR, UK GDPR, CFAA, and CCPA.

How can I stop web scrapers?

Update your TOS and robots.txt file. Use dedicated, effective bot protection software like DataDome.