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Legal & Compliance

Is Web Scraping Legal? A Practical Guide for 2024

• 8 min read

Web scraping has become an essential tool for businesses gathering market intelligence, monitoring competitors, and building data-driven products. But is it legal? The answer, like most legal questions, is: it depends.

The Legal Landscape

Web scraping itself is not inherently illegal. The legality depends on what you scrape, how you scrape it, and what you do with the data. Several high-profile court cases have shaped our understanding of web scraping law.

Key Legal Precedents

The hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn case established that scraping publicly available data is generally permissible. The court ruled that accessing public data does not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).

GDPR and Personal Data

If you're scraping personal data of EU residents, GDPR applies. This means you need a lawful basis for processing, must respect data subject rights, and should implement appropriate security measures.

  • Only collect data you actually need
  • Document your lawful basis for processing
  • Implement data retention policies
  • Respect opt-out requests

Respecting robots.txt

While robots.txt is not legally binding, ignoring it can be used as evidence of bad faith in legal disputes. We recommend always checking and respecting robots.txt directives.

Best Practices for Legal Scraping

  1. Scrape public data only - Avoid data behind login walls
  2. Respect rate limits - Don't overload target servers
  3. Check Terms of Service - Understand the website's policies
  4. Avoid personal data - Unless you have a lawful basis
  5. Document everything - Keep records of your scraping activities

Conclusion

Web scraping is a powerful tool when used responsibly. By following best practices and staying informed about legal developments, you can gather the data you need while minimizing legal risk.

Need help setting up compliant scraping infrastructure? Contact our team to discuss your requirements.