Is Web Scraping Legal?
There has been great talk about the legality of scraping information from the internet in the past decade, especially since the boom of IT and automation. Companies in marketing and other business sectors were hunting for data from all available sources, but the question was always there: Is scraping legal at all?
This discussion was not only among netizens but also in many courts in the UK, Europe, and the USA, where the legality of web scraping has been debated for years. Different rulings have been passed depending on the nature of data, but none have completely banned web scraping in any country.
To better understand this, it’s important to know what kind of data we can scrape legally and what kind of data is illegal to scrape. Globally, data is divided into two major categories as mentioned below:
Publicly Available Data
Publicly available data is associated with company data, business sector data, or real estate data.
This type of data is usually advertised on business directories, maps, or public/government databases by companies themselves to increase digital visibility. Such data is legal to scrape all around the world, and laws generally allow you to use it for marketing or business purposes.
If you want to collect publicly available business or listings data, our team at Scraping Solution can help with custom data mining and Google Maps scraping solutions tailored to your needs.
Private/Personal Data
According to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), personal data is defined as:
“Personal data means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.”
Although this data is not publicly available on any directories, it sometimes appears online when stolen or sold by different apps or websites. Due to the rise of social media, users often publish their information on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, which makes it accessible to the public. However, scraping this kind of personal data is not legal in most parts of the world.
The only partial exception is in California’s privacy law (CCPA), where scraping publicly available information voluntarily posted by users may be allowed under certain conditions (as of 2023).
Therefore, it’s a good practice to avoid personal data and focus instead on business-to-business (B2B) data, which in itself is a vast and valuable field with plenty of untapped opportunities.
Ethics of Scraping
Even if you are dealing with public records, which are legitimate to scrape, Scraping Solution always follows strong ethical practices to keep the process transparent and responsible. If you are involved in scraping, you should consider the same principles:
Always use an API to get the data if the API is available, rather than scraping it from the front end.
Do not publish scraped data as-is on any platform.
Avoid sending too many requests that affect website performance or resemble a DDoS attack.
Always include a User-Agent string to inform the site owner that you are scraping publicly available data.
Whenever possible, seek permission from the owner especially if it’s an e-commerce website.
Be ethical when using someone else’s data and never misuse or devalue its original source.
For organizations wanting to ensure compliance and efficiency, our Scraping Consultancy team can help you plan secure, compliant, and optimized scraping solutions.
Conclusion
While web scraping remains legal for publicly available data, it comes with ethical and compliance responsibilities. Understanding the distinction between public and personal data is crucial. By adhering to legal frameworks and practicing responsible scraping, companies can safely leverage data for marketing, analytics, and automation.
If you’re unsure where your project stands legally or ethically, reach out to Scraping Solution our experts can guide you on how to collect, process, and use data the right way.