Web scraping: what is the legality of such actions?

Web scraping, or as it is often called today data parsing is a technique aimed at extracting information from Internet pages. Here, HTML code will be analyzed, information will be obtained that can then be used directly in business operations, including such tasks as general market analysis, collecting data on competitors, their products, services, and current prices. Advertising strategies are often built on the basis of the information obtained, and SEO optimization of websites is performed. Thanks to this technique, the processing of large data arrays is significantly accelerated and simplified, allowing managers to receive up-to-date information literally here and now.

In today's review, we will dwell in more detail on what web scraping is and what advantages it has. We will tell you for what everyday tasks this technology should be used. Let's also pay attention to the issue of the legality of such actions, because it interests a large number of specialists working in the field of Internet marketing, traffic arbitrage, SEO promotion, social network promotion, etc. We will provide a number of practical recommendations that will allow you to carry out these works within the law, without fear of any restrictions from the system and your competitors in general.

Reasons for using web scraping

The amount of information that exists in the world today is calculated in unrealistic figures. And this is associated with a fairly large number of problems for ordinary users. Not only does all this data still need to be somehow extracted, it also needs to be structured. This is the only way to get answers to your questions, that is, to benefit yourself. But, along with all this, it is also important to understand that people are looking for not just some information, but really high-quality and reliable information. And this is already — is quite a serious problem and here's why:

• Too much data. Even information on the same topic is presented in a huge variety of sources. And if you study them, then with a high degree of probability certain discrepancies will be revealed, and quite significant ones. And this means that a person can very easily get lost in all this data and not find a reliable answer to the questions of interest, or even accept information that is far from the truth as the truth.
• Lack of a single clear standard. The original information can be provided in materials that differ in structure, approaches to coverage. This is what will complicate the comparison of data and subsequent integration into work processes.
• A huge variety of formats. Modern users can get the data they need from text, graphic content, videos, infographics, audio files, etc. This means that processing will not be as easy as it seems at first glance. Here you will need to have the appropriate knowledge and skills.
• High risk of information overload. Excess information is something that not only complicates the search for reliable data, but can also cause serious stress. People who need to understand a particular issue may be shocked by how much information they have to process in order to get to the heart of the matter. And it is not a fact that all this data will be reliable and will not have to be additionally filtered and checked.

Web scraping is designed to combat these very problems. That is, this tool will collect the necessary information on the relevant topic without your participation, structure it and present it in the most visual and easily identifiable form, which will greatly facilitate its perception.

What is web scraping?

Web scraping is an automatic process of collecting information from Internet pages. Unlike conventional parsing, which involves copying all the information manually, everything is automated here. This saves time on solving the task and significantly increases scalability. Thanks to web scraping, the process of collecting information becomes more convenient, simple, and fast. You can literally get a selection of the necessary information in a matter of minutes by automatically processing huge amounts of data.

We would like to draw your attention to the fact that today such a term as web crawling is also quite actively used. It is often confused with scraping, but these are completely different technologies. In particular, web crawling is widely used in search engines, for example, in Google. It involves viewing Internet pages for the purpose of indexing them. That is, bots are present in both processes, but the crawlers simply “view” materials, compare the content with the topic, confirm or, on the contrary, refute the quality of the page. But web scraping — this is the direct collection of specific information that the user is looking for.

In order to delve into the topic of our review in more detail, let's get acquainted with the advantages of web parsing, as well as the work that can be significantly simplified with its help.

What are the main advantages of web scraping

The first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word "web scraping" is a very serious time saving on collecting information. Instead of doing all this work manually, you will only need to spend a few minutes setting up the parser, and then just click on one button to start the process of automated data collection. But still, despite all the seriousness and weight of this advantage, it is far from the only one here. Other distinctive features of web scraping include:

1. Automation of similar and repetitive tasks. Web scraping - This is a tool that will allow you to automate a huge number of routine and similar tasks. Alternatively, you can make preliminary settings so that the program periodically studies information about the prices of your competitors, collects reviews from different services on your goods or services, tracks the number of items available for sale, etc. You can also configure the parsers to collect new information from the site, which will allow you to constantly stay up to date with the latest trends.
2. Aggregation of information. In this case, we are talking about collecting data from different sources and combining them into one to perform a more convenient and fast comparative analysis. This is what makes this product indispensable when working with ticket, hotel, and housing booking services. The program will collect price information and provide the user with the most profitable solutions for him.
3. Conducting a comprehensive market research. If you are just starting your own business, if you want to bring a new product to the market, then it is important to be well versed in the features of this niche. That is, you must understand how relevant your product will be, what the average price for it on the market is, how high the demand is, and whether there are competitors, their number. This is the information that will allow you to make a fairly balanced decision on the advisability of performing these works, as well as develop a strategy that will prove itself in practice.
4. Optimization of work processes. Thanks to web scraping, you can automate a fairly large number of routine and similar tasks that your managers must perform daily, spending most of their working day on this. And if you automate these works, you can save not only human resources, but also money.
5. High efficiency in the process of searching for potential buyers. Web scraping allows you to collect data not only about competitors, but also about the target market. In particular, with its help you will be able to obtain contact information of people who voluntarily leave them in open sources, and then use them for your own purposes, as an option for organizing an e-mail newsletter and performing related work aimed at increasing sales.
6. Convenient and fast market monitoring. With the help of automatic tools, you will be able to track reviews of your products or services on any platforms, be it social networks, review sites, etc. And you will also be able to assess the demand for a particular product in order to understand whether it is worth launching such sales or not.

So what tasks can be solved with the help of web scraping? Read on.

Area of use of web scraping

Today, web scraping is a tool that will be useful not only for business representatives, marketers, but also for many other specialists, and in completely different niches. See for yourself how advanced and effective a tool you can have at your disposal:

• Tracking prices of goods and services on the market. This tool will be indispensable when working with all platforms related to the e-commerce niche. Alternatively, these can be the most common marketplaces, the same Wildberries, Yandex.Market, Ozon, Ebay, Aliexpress, Amazon, etc. Business representatives will be able to easily monitor the prices of their competitors, instantly making adjustments to their own strategy, thereby attracting the attention of the consumer audience. That is, you will be able to launch promotions, make discounts and make other changes to your own pricing strategy based on general market data that is relevant at the current moment in time.
• Attracting an audience for sales departments or the HR sphere. Alternatively, web scraping can be used to collect resumes from various sites, selecting candidates for vacant positions that fully meet your educational requirements, practical skills, and desired salary. Sales departments can also collect data from review sites or specialized business directories in order to select potential business partners or form a loyal target audience. Thanks to all this, the lead generation process will be significantly accelerated, and its effectiveness will be high, since when setting the initial parameters in the program, you will indicate key indicators for yourself.
• Collecting information from different sources for the purpose of its subsequent comparison. Thanks to web scraping, you can get the most accurate and complete information within a certain topic. This will allow you to perform a very deep study of the market, get important information about competitors and target audiences, current trends today. Automation of such processes will significantly simplify the work of a specialist in the field of finance, retail, medicine and many others that require a comprehensive analysis of huge amounts of data. With such information, you will be able to make the most correct strategic decisions.
• Protecting brand reputation. With the help of web parsing, business representatives can protect themselves from counterfeit products, from the illegal use of trademarks. Unfortunately, today in practice we very often encounter the fact that unscrupulous individuals create copies of sites of famous brands and through them try to sell counterfeit goods. You, as a business representative, will be able to track all mentions of your company or exclusive products on various sites, and then identify illegal online representations and curtail their work. This will not only allow you to maintain your high reputation, but also reduce the losses that will certainly occur if counterfeits enter the market.
• Analysis of consumer market sentiment. We are talking about collecting and analyzing reviews that your customers leave on various sites after working with you. This way you can understand which aspects people appreciated, and which, on the contrary, did not go well with them or caused a negative reaction. With the information you receive, you can make adjustments to your business, thereby enhancing your strengths and minimizing your weaknesses. This way, you can release a product that your audience would like to see. One that will generate more and more positive feedback and a minimum of negative feedback.
• Performing comprehensive investment analytics. In particular, in the financial sector, web scraping can be used to obtain visual information about the state of the labor market, to help investors collect information about specialists working in a particular niche. You can also monitor what feedback employees leave about working in the company, thereby obtaining a comprehensive idea of the problems that exist in the company, assessing the corporate culture as a whole. This is what will allow you to make the most balanced and appropriate decision about long-term cooperation or investing in a particular company.
• Monitoring SEO efficiency. Web scraping will help specialists easily and simply track the positions of their own site in search results, collect information from competitors' sites that are in the TOP in order to analyze their strategy, the key queries used. It will also be possible to track the number and quality of backlinks. This is the information that will help build the most effective SEO website promotion strategy, develop effective methods when interacting with different search engines, improve indexing and ranking indicators. This is what will contribute to more effective promotion of your site to the top of search results. All this will be relevant for absolutely any business that has its own online presence.
• Machine learning. This is what no modern neural network can do without. In order for it to be able to operate large volumes of information, it will need to be "taught", that is, collect the maximum amount of necessary data within each topic. Specialized software will be engaged in its collection. At the same time, information will be borrowed not only from classic sites, but also from blogs, news resources, forums. As a result, you will be able to train models, develop recommendation systems, applying a minimum of physical effort to this.
• Testing sites or applications before launching them on the market, as well as monitoring subsequent work. This will be relevant for any products that are launched on the market. In particular, it will be possible to see in advance how the audience from a particular country will perceive your product, whether it will be in demand here. It will also be possible to test the load with minimal time expenditure to understand whether the site can withstand increased traffic, etc.

As you can see, web scraping is a very functional product that will be indispensable in the work of many specialists. But here many people have a completely natural question: how legal is the use of such programs? Can automatic data collection violate copyright or other terms of use of the site? Is there a risk that the use of web scraping can entail a serious violation of the law and the corresponding consequences? We will talk about this further.

The main aspects of the legality of web parsing

In order not to run into any restrictions, prohibitions, blocking, it is necessary to thoroughly understand all the nuances associated with the legality of actions. If we talk about web scraping, then there are a number of key points that must be taken into account before starting data collection. Understanding what we are talking about, you can minimize possible risks and build your work within the framework of current legislative norms and requirements. In particular, we are talking about the following points:

1. The presence in the user agreement of sites of a direct ban on automated data collection. Therefore, before launching such work, you should study the relevant documentation. Otherwise, you may face legal consequences, including litigation, fines.
2. The presence of copyright on the site, extending to the protection of data present on the site. In this case, automated collection of data and their subsequent use can be carried out only with the consent of the person who owns the copyright. Otherwise, there will also be a violation of the law and you may face all the associated restrictions.
3. Failure to comply with the Law on the Protection of Personal Data. We would like to draw attention to the fact that different regions and countries of the world have their own rules and requirements that must be taken into account. The most well-known here are the CCPA requirements, which apply to American sites, and the GDPR, which is in effect in the European Union.
4. Failure to comply with Fair Competition Laws. There are points here that can also be applied to web scraping. In particular, they relate to the collection of confidential data, copying materials posted on competitors' pages and violating copyrights.

That is, it is important to make sure that your web scraping is as effective as possible, but at the same time does not violate all the rights that we have indicated above. Otherwise, your actions may be considered illegal with all the ensuing circumstances.

Web scraping and website terms of use

Website terms of use are documents that include provisions governing the automatic collection of data. Such actions may be limited or even prohibited here. Such requirements are provided not only to prevent legal violations, but also to protect the site from unwanted loads that could slow down the work, have a negative impact on traffic statistics, reduce the level of satisfaction from users and worsen many other metrics. In addition, often the restrictions that apply to web scraping imply the protection of intellectual property, that is, preventing the use of data by competitors.

If you still violate such provisions, you can provoke quite serious legal consequences. Often this will be blocking access to the site, lengthy legal proceedings and, as a result, fines, and for significant amounts. Therefore, we will repeat once again that even before you start web scraping, it is important to study the user agreements of the sites you plan to work with and find out whether they contain the appropriate restrictions.

How CFAA, GDPR and CCPA laws affect web scraping

We have already mentioned above that today in different countries of the world there are a number of laws regulating the protection of confidential information. Among the most common options here we can highlight the GDPR, that is, the General Data Protection Regulation, which is currently in effect in European countries, CCPA, the California Consumer Privacy Act, which sets out the requirements that are in effect in the United States, as well as the CFAA - the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. All the points that are spelled out in these documents have a direct impact on the principle of processing personal data, including their collection, use and storage. And it does not matter whether you use web scraping to obtain them or do all the work manually, these standards must be taken into account. In particular, the main points of the Laws:

1. GDPR. Here, the legality, transparency and fairness of information collection must be observed. That is, it is important to have people's consent to the processing of their data before starting any work that involves the use of confidential information.
2. CCPA. This regulatory document states that people must know what personal data is collected by the system, and can also demand the safety of this information, that is, prohibit its sale. But today this legislative act is in effect in the state of California. Be sure to take this into account if you plan to work with this GEO.
3. CFAA. This document regulates access to computer systems. Among other things, it also includes issues related to bypassing technical protection measures such as IP blocking, CAPTCHA, and violating the terms of use of certain sites. If such requirements are violated, the system may interpret them as unauthorized access, taking appropriate measures.

In most cases, violating such laws is fraught with fines, as well as a negative impact on the reputation of your company. These documents also regulate the use of personal user data that will be collected as a result of web scraping, including names, email addresses, phone numbers. Despite the fact that the GDPR and CCPA documents do not directly prohibit automatic data collection, you may still fall under restrictions. The fact is that they directly regulate the use of the information obtained. And it does not matter whether we are talking about subsequent sale or personal use.

The only exception to this is the CFAA, as it already describes the methods of collecting information. If we talk directly about web scraping, this law defines what data was obtained as a result of such actions, and then decides whether they are legal or illegal. In the event that you obtain information by bypassing technical protection measures, then with a high degree of probability such actions will be recorded as a violation.

Are laws only observed on paper?

Why are we talking about these laws? So that you understand that all this is not empty words and that when web scraping it is very important to comply with all the rules and requirements in force in the modern market, including taking into account the GEO where you work. Today, many companies, including well-known ones, have fallen under restrictions and serious fines. Proceedings have been launched, court decisions have been made. Here are just 3 examples that will help you understand that web scraping laws must be followed:

• LinkedIn v. hiQ Labs. This lawsuit was launched in 2019 and has become one of the most high-profile in the US in recent times in this market segment. In particular, the social network LinkedIn wanted to protect itself from data collection by hiQ Labs. The latter collected publicly available data from user profiles of the social network for market analytics. LinkedIn lost this dispute because it could not prove that hiQ's actions caused serious harm to the users of the platform. The essence of the dispute was whether the collection of public data is considered unauthorized access to secure computer networks.
• Meta Platforms Inc. v. Bright Data Ltd. One of the latest high-profile cases, the decision on which was made in January 2024. Here, the Bright Data service was accused of collecting data from public pages of social networks Instagram and Facebook. However, the court still found these actions to be legal, since no login was used to access the data, meaning that the work was carried out directly with public information. In addition, this requirement was not specified in the contract, meaning that no circumvention of the restrictions was found. The case was won only because Bright Data relied on the difference between access to public user credentials and closed information.
• Ryanair v. PR Aviation. A fairly old case (2015) between the Ryanair airline and the PR Aviation ticket price aggregator. The airline claimed that the service violated the terms of use of the site, which prohibits automated collection of information. And here, Ryanair won: the court indicated that the terms of use of the site were not complied with by the other party.

What conclusions can we draw from these proceedings? That if web scraping is carried out within the law, then even in the event of litigation you will not receive penalties. The court will see the fact of data collection, but nothing illegal will be found. Therefore, it is important to comply with the terms of use of the source and start work only after the circumstances of each site have been studied in detail. It is also important not to forget which countries of the world you plan to work with and understand the current requirements for this region.

Tips for using web scraping

To minimize possible risks when performing web scraping, use the following recommendations:

1. Be sure to study the user terms, especially those points that specify restrictions or prohibitions on data collection in general, as well as on automated solutions.
2. Clearly monitor copyrights and send requests for appropriate permissions if necessary. This will be especially relevant if you plan to cite the information you receive or use it for your own research purposes.
3. Carefully study the GDPR, CCPA, CFAA laws, not only in terms of data processing permissions, but also taking into account the information collection process itself.
4. If you plan to use the collected information for commercial purposes, it would be best to inform the resource owners. If you are offered to use the API of the target site, it is advisable to use it.
5. Select the optimal frequency of requests to the site in order to minimize the load on it and not provoke a failure, traffic overload.

Using these recommendations in practice, you will be able to minimize legal risks, as well as maintain high standards of professional ethics when performing web parsing.

Summing up

Everything we talked about in today's review confirms the fact that web scraping is a fairly functional and easy-to-use product that can simplify the implementation of a huge number of everyday tasks facing modern businesses and more. But still, when implementing it, it is important to take into account all the laws, regulations and requirements that are relevant today. This is the only way to avoid various restrictions and sanctions.

But we also want to draw your attention to the fact that web scraping involves fairly active and massive work on the network. This is what can cause additional restrictions from the sites themselves, and the system as a whole. Therefore, a reasonable and justified solution in this case would be to additionally use mobile proxies from the MobileProxy.Space service. You can read more about this product here. In this case, you will connect an additional intermediary server to work, which will replace your real IP address and geolocation with its own technical parameters, thereby bypassing various regional restrictions, gaining access to sites and services from different countries and regions of the world. Also, the use of mobile proxies will provide you with high levels of privacy and security of work on the network.

If additional questions arise in subsequent work, you will need competent assistance from a specialist, the technical support service works around the clock.

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