Introduction:
Web scraping’s legality often resides in a gray area, sparking debates and varying viewpoints. Determining its legitimacy isn’t a straightforward ‘yes’ or ‘no’. This practice involves gathering internet data, but its legality pivots on what’s scraped, how it’s used, and the methods employed for extraction.
Is Web Scraping Legal?
Some make sweeping assertions—declaring web scraping as either lawful or unlawful. These viewpoints often stem from personal incentives. Web scrapers might argue for the legality of scraping, while corporate attorneys and anti-bot companies might argue otherwise.
In reality, there isn’t a straightforward “yes” or “no” answer to this query.
It heavily depends on the circumstances and the definition of web scraping you employ. For our purposes here, web scraping is simply defined as the process of gathering data from across the internet. While web data scraping per se isn’t inherently illegal, its legality hinges on three key aspects:
- The type of data being scraped.
- Intended usage of the scraped data.
- The method employed to extract data from the website.
Illegal Data Types to Scrape
Be it e-commerce data, personal information, or articles, the type of data being scraped and the intended usage significantly impacts its legality.
Surprisingly, the eventual use of scraped data often plays a pivotal role in determining its legality.
It might be lawful to scrape a website, yet the intended use of the acquired data could render it illegal.
Personal Data
Personal data, or personally identifiable information (PII), encompasses any data that can directly or indirectly identify a specific individual.
With the advent of GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act, and the uproar surrounding scandals like Cambridge Analytica’s interference in the 2016 US Presidential Election, handling personal data has become a contentious issue demanding attention from every web scraper.
Different legal jurisdictions possess distinct regulations governing personal data. Generally, in jurisdictions with stringent consumer privacy laws (e.g., the EU, California), obtaining, storing, and/or using someone’s personal data without consent or a lawful reason is illegal.
Examples of personal data include names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, usernames, IP addresses, dates of birth, employment details, bank or credit card information, medical and biometric data.
In most cases (lead generation, sales intelligence, etc.), scraping personal data without the data owner’s consent or a lawful reason can be deemed illegal.
If you’re not scraping any personal data or solely scraping non-EU or non-Californian citizens’ personal data, your scraping is likely safe.
Copyrighted Data
The second critical type of data to tread carefully with when scraping is copyrighted data.
Copyrighted data is owned by entities or individuals who have explicit control over its reproduction and acquisition.
Much like copyrighted images and songs, just because data is publicly accessible on the internet doesn’t equate to legal scraping without the owner’s consent, potentially infringing upon copyright.
This typically applies to articles, videos, images, stories, music, and databases. The act of scraping copyrighted data itself isn’t illegal; it’s the intended use of the data post-scraping that might render it illegal.
Two scrapers could scrape the same copyrighted article—one staying within legal bounds, the other breaching copyright.
The legality hinges on how you plan to use the data after scraping:
- Can you claim fair use? Using snippets instead of replicating the entire article.
- Can you argue that the data is factual and not subject to copyright? Factual information like product names or prices usually isn’t protected by copyright laws.
However, a trickier aspect in copyright law is the issue of database rights. Databases, organized collections of materials facilitating data retrieval, can be protected under certain circumstances.
Scraping an entire database from the web and reproducing it verbatim might breach database rights.
Different regulations in the US and the EU govern databases and offer legal protections to database owners. Hence, understanding the rules pertinent to the legal jurisdictions you’re scraping from is crucial.
To mitigate the risk of infringing on database rights:
- Only scrape a portion of available data.
- Avoid replicating the original database’s organizational structure.
Is Web Scraping Itself Illegal?
Determining if scraping personal or copyrighted data renders your web scraping illegal is relatively straightforward due to explicit laws.
However, the legality of web scraping itself becomes more convoluted as no government has explicitly legalized or criminalized web scraping. Instead, legal clarity often arises from lawsuits between web scrapers and website owners.
Cases like Craigslist vs. 3Taps, Ryanair vs. PR Aviation, and the high-profile LinkedIn vs. HiQ have grappled with the enforceability of Terms of Service barring web scraping or automatic access.
While verdicts in web scraping cases have swung both ways, as of 2021, courts are increasingly clarifying the legality of data scraping for web scrapers.
The recent HiQ vs. LinkedIn case determined that scraping publicly available data from a website doesn’t violate anti-hacking laws, provided the data doesn’t necessitate logging in or explicitly agreeing to the website’s terms and conditions.
This implies that if data is publicly accessible on a website without requiring explicit agreement to the site’s terms, web scraping that data is within the scraper’s rights.
So, how does this impact web scrapers?
If you’re scraping a website, consider these factors to gauge legality:
- Is the data publicly accessible? If no login is required, the website’s terms and conditions aren’t enforceable, thus legally allowing scraping of public data.
- Does accessing the data mandate creating an account and logging in? If so, scrutinize the terms and conditions agreed upon during account creation, as they become legally binding.
Numerous websites incorporate clauses in their Terms and Conditions (accepted upon creating an account) prohibiting scraping content. As a rule of thumb, assume logging in and scraping is illegal unless their Terms and Conditions explicitly allow it.
At ScraperAPI, we prohibit users from scraping data behind login screens.
Your Web Scraping Compliance Check
Ensuring the legality and ethicality of your web scraping practices is paramount. Take a moment to evaluate your approach through a simple three-step compliance check:
1. Data Evaluation:
Ask yourself:
- Am I gathering personal information?
- Am I collecting copyrighted data?
- Am I accessing information behind login barriers?
2. Aligning with Legal Standards:
If all answers align with “No,” you’re likely on the right track in compliance with legal boundaries. However, a “Yes” to any warrants a thorough reevaluation to prevent unintentional breaches and guarantee adherence to legal norms.
3. Ethical Scrutiny:
Consider the ethical implications of your data scraping efforts. Reflect on the potential impact and use of the extracted information beyond legality.
Remember, while legality is crucial, ethical considerations are equally significant in fostering responsible web scraping practices.
Learn More: A Vital Manual on Tracking Competitor Prices for eCommerce Success