Can you legally scrape websites?

Sites like eBay and Amazon are built around collecting user-generated content from other sites. There's also plenty of public information out there that users can share with one another: product reviews, price comparisons, restaurant menus, movie trailers, etc. Web scraping allows programmers to take advantage of all this free data without having to pay anyone anything.

It sounds great: You're saving yourself time by using third party APIs instead of building your own database, and you've got access to tons of valuable information without actually spending any money. Unfortunately, most people who use web scraping don't realize they're doing something potentially illegal—and even more unfortunately, some companies have decided to sue their clients over it.

So how safe is web scraping? Is it really as simple as just downloading a few pages and copying them into Google Sheets? Can you ever be held responsible when someone else uses your work? And what about those pesky robots.txt restrictions and privacy policies? How far does the First Amendment extend here? Let’s break down everything we know so far.

Can you get in trouble for scraping a website?

No. If you scrape data publicly available on the internet, then you're not breaking any laws because you're simply accessing freely available information. There are certain exceptions, though. For instance, you could be sued for scraping an unlicensed copyrighted video game site. Other examples include copyright infringement lawsuits against YouTube channels, which often feature videos uploaded by others.

You might be able to find yourself in hot water if you were to copy images off another person's Instagram account without permission, but again, that would likely fall under the realm of fair use rather than copyright law. It helps to keep these things in mind before you start scrapping!

Can I get sued for web scraping?

In general, no. While there are many cases where individuals have been successfully sued for scraping websites, it almost never happens. The reason why is pretty straightforward: Most websites allow you to view whatever they want you to see. They may restrict access to certain sections of the website or require registration to view specific parts of the page, but in terms of copyright, they generally give you full rights to view that part of the website.

This means that if you download a webpage and paste its contents into a document, you're essentially making sure everyone has equal access to that material. This doesn't mean you should violate copyright law, but it certainly makes it easier to defend yourself against accusations of wrongdoing.

As long as you aren't actively trying to hide anything or profit from scraping a website, you shouldn't run afoul of the law. Even worse, lawyers will sometimes try to claim that you did something wrong by scraping a website without first checking whether the company running the site had given you permission to do so. In reality, however, it's nearly impossible for a lawyer to prove that you didn't obtain proper consent unless you specifically asked them for permission.

If you're still worried about getting in trouble for scraping a website, check out our list of 20 best practices for avoiding web scraping mistakes.

Is it legal to scrape website prices?

Scraping prices is definitely fine provided you make sure you're grabbing data that isn't protected by copyright law. For example, if you want to compare two products' pricing across different retailers, you'll need to grab the same exact numbers from each store. Otherwise, you risk violating copyright law by reproducing someone else's work.

The main thing to remember here is that while you should always ask permission first, you can never assume you won't receive one. Just because a site says "don't steal" doesn't necessarily mean they wouldn't prefer to shut down your entire business rather than deal with a potential lawsuit.

How do you not get caught web scraping?

While there are many ways to protect yourself from being accused of stealing someone else's work, there are only a handful of major techniques worth mentioning here. Some of them involve scraping data from private businesses, so proceed at your own discretion.

First, consider whether or not you'd be comfortable scraping someone else's data. Many businesses are perfectly happy sharing their customer lists, sales figures, and similar details online. However, they usually place limits on how much information you can collect. If you think you might accidentally violate one of these terms, you probably shouldn't go ahead and scrape the data anyway.

Another way to avoid getting caught is to ensure that you're gathering data from multiple sources. One common mistake made by inexperienced scrapers is to focus solely on popular websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. These sites typically put up little roadblocks between regular visitors and their content, meaning that you can easily crawl through every single URL linked within the social media platform without facing too many problems.

On the flip side, websites whose content changes frequently—like news outlets and blogs—are harder to scrape since you don't know exactly what to look for until after you've already found it. This becomes especially problematic if you're working with large datasets that contain thousands of entries. To combat this problem, you might consider looking for smaller sites that publish consistent articles.

Finally, keep your code clean. Use tools like Python's beautiful soup library to parse HTML files and remove extraneous characters, and avoid storing sensitive info like credit card numbers right next to your actual source code. You can also limit the number of URLs you request per second to prevent bottlenecks that could slow down your server.

Of course, none of these tips guarantee that you won't end up in court someday, but they should help you stay well clear of any legal troubles.

Can you sell scraped data?

Absolutely. Scrapped data is a huge industry unto itself, and there are dozens of marketplaces dedicated to selling it. There are even websites that let you buy and sell random facts based entirely on what you find during web scraping sessions.

For example, you can search for stock quotes on Yahoo Finance, save the results to a text file, upload the file to Quora, and earn $1,000+ for answering questions related to those stocks. Or you can spend 10 minutes searching for the highest rated hotels in New York City and earning cash via Airbnb. Either way, you're guaranteed to find at least one project that pays handsomely for the amount of effort involved.

However, don't expect to turn a quick buck by casually scraping data. As mentioned above, there are countless rules governing how much data you can gather and retain, and you'll quickly come across a cap on the total amount of income you can make from the activity. Plus, you'll need to register with platforms like Payoneer to accept payments from customers, which takes additional steps.

All told, it's unlikely that you'll become rich from web scraping alone, although you can definitely rake in decent amounts if you specialize in niche markets. Still, you'll need to invest quite a lot of time into researching topics, writing scripts, testing, releasing new versions, and maintaining servers. That said, once you build enough experience, you can start charging anywhere from $10-$100 per hour depending on your skill level and demand.

How do you define 'web scraping'?

In short, a "scraper" is a program designed to automatically extract information from a website. Often times, these programs rely on libraries like Beautiful Soup (an open source software toolkit developed by MIT), Selenium, Scrapy, Mechanize, PyQuery, and Requests to perform various tasks.

When you combine all of these components together, you wind up creating an automated system capable of crawling through several hundred thousand links per minute. Because of this speed, it's possible to create data sets containing millions of unique items.

One caveat worth noting is that web scraping isn't perfect. For starters, you'll encounter errors along the way due to human error. Sometimes, websites change their layouts slightly or completely alter their appearance without warning. Another issue that arises involves nonstandard elements that aren't supported by standard libraries.

Some sites also block crawlers outright, either due to technical limitations or for malicious reasons. Lastly, there are some types of data that you can't scrape, including things like PDF documents, audio recordings, and scanned documents.

Despite these minor setbacks, overall, web scraping remains extremely useful for a wide range of applications. Whether you're interested in extracting data from a local database, comparing retail prices, or learning programming languages, web scraping is a powerful tool that you absolutely must master.

Octoparse is a web scraping service that lets you effortlessly pull data directly from websites. It works by parsing HTML files and returning the elements inside. Once you sign up for an unlimited plan ($8/month), you can instantly import any website into your dashboard. Here are some cool projects you can accomplish today.

Scraping -- a process of extracting information from an online source using automated scripts -- has been around for decades and became commonplace with the rise of the Internet. It's still one of many ways that people collect content for use by others.

But how much do we actually know about whether web scraping is legal? If you're thinking about starting your own website scraper, here are some things you should consider before doing so.

If you want to get started building your own site-scraper, there’s plenty of software out there to help. One popular option is Octoparse, which lets you build a custom toolset based on Python code. You could also try Scrapely  or Web Scrapper. There are even companies like WebPunch and iSight Systems who will offer their services as part of a service package.

That said, scraping isn't always straightforward. As with anything illegal, there are a lot of grey areas when it comes to legality. In most cases, scraping works fine because the information being scraped doesn’t require any special permission or licensing.

In this article, we'll take a look at what web scraping is, why it might be considered illegal, and where you need to tread carefully if you plan to scrape for yourself. We'll start by looking into whether web scraping is legal, then move onto exploring potential concerns. Lastly, we'll cover three specific types of scraping projects that may give you pause.

Is web scraping legal?

Yes! The law varies depending on your location but generally speaking, you don’t have to ask anyone’s permission to scrape something off the internet. Even though scraping is technically breaking the terms of service agreements of the original website, it's not against the law unless someone asks you to stop.

The only caveat is that you can't scrape private data such as credit card numbers, bank account details, email addresses, or personally identifiable information. That means if you scrape a company's mailing list, you must make sure they haven't asked you not to scrape it.

This rule applies regardless of whether you're scraping in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, or anywhere else. So long as you aren't scraping data that falls under those restrictions, web scraping is legal everywhere.

However, if you intend to resell the results of your scraping efforts, you'll need to check with local authorities first. Depending on the jurisdiction, scraping may fall under copyright laws, data protection regulations, or other relevant legislation.

Is scraping public websites legal?

Most likely yes. In fact, scraping public websites is probably more common than scraping private ones. This makes sense since most businesses publish information about themselves on the internet without asking permission. After all, wouldn't you rather see if there was a way to buy your favorite product cheaper than going through retail channels?

You can find lots of information about scraping public websites across the web. For example, Wikipedia says that "the practice of gathering useful information from a variety of sources and presenting them in structured form is called 'web harvesting'".

There are exceptions to this general rule, however. Some government agencies and large corporations like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Netflix, Twitter, and Uber explicitly forbid scraping. These organizations often impose restrictions on third parties trying to access their data.

For instance, Apple limits its APIs to developers who agree to adhere to certain rules regarding privacy. Similarly, Twitter forbids users from making bots that automatically download tweets from the platform. And while Facebook does allow scraping, it requires explicit approval from each user whose profile you wish to parse.

So if you think you'd like to scrape data from these kinds of platforms, you'll need to contact the appropriate party directly first. They won't necessarily tell you no, but chances are they'll ask you to prove that you deserve the right to scrape their data.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. Sites like Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, SoundCloud, Spotify, Twitch, YouTube, and Vimeo all provide open access to their API endpoints. However, while their documentation states that you’re free to scrape whatever you please, you may run into trouble if you attempt to scrape sensitive data like customer names, payment info, or IP addresses.

Another thing worth noting is that there are differences between countries: in the EU, for example, you’d better believe scraping is allowed. In contrast, in China, scraping is banned outright. 

The bottom line is that just because a particular organization allows you to scrape their data doesn’t mean you can go ahead and do so without getting permission first.

Is it legal to scrape data from social media?

It depends on the kind of data you've collected. Generally speaking, it's safe to assume that collecting data from social networks is okay provided you follow a few simple guidelines.

First, remember that social network profiles contain very little actual personal information. Instead, they tend to store basic identifying information like name, age, gender, date of birth, interests, hobbies, etc. While this information may seem valuable to marketers, advertisers, and other interested parties, it's unlikely to ever pose a threat to your safety.

Second, keep in mind that social media platforms typically prohibit scraping. On LinkedIn, for example, you can only retrieve job listings, connections, events, groups, and company pages. Likewise, Facebook prohibits scraping both individual profiles and entire categories of posts.

Third, if you decide to scrape social media, you should do so anonymously. Don't post links to your project on Facebook, Twitter, or wherever else you plan to share the information. Also, never include personal information in your scraping script. If you do, you risk violating the terms of service agreement, potentially putting yourself in hot water.

Finally, don't forget that many social networks employ AI technology that analyzes user behavior. By scraping data and storing it locally, you could accidentally trigger a machine learning model that identifies you as a suspicious person. This could result in a ban from using the social network entirely, or worse yet, lead to criminal charges.

As noted earlier, scraping is usually legal. However, there are some instances when it's not. Here are three examples.

1. Selling data gathered via scraping

While selling data is generally considered ethical, it's important to understand the difference between scraping and scraping data. When you scrape data, you gather up pieces of information that were already freely accessible on the internet. Your role is simply to present the information to another entity.

On the other hand, when you scrape data to create new products, you're essentially creating a whole new product. At best, you’re taking existing material and repackaging it in a different format. More realistically, you’re reusing copyrighted materials and exploiting the hard work of others.

2. Using automation tools

Many scraping platforms and programs automate tasks that would otherwise take hours or days to complete manually. Automation is great for saving time and effort. But like scraping itself, automation can cross over into unethical territory if used improperly.

3. Stealing intellectual property

Some companies rely heavily on intellectual property to generate revenue. When you scrape data without permission, you become liable to pay royalties back to the rightful owner.

How to safely scrape data

When it comes down to it, the biggest concern with web scraping is security. Just imagine if someone were able to hack a server and gain full control of the database containing your precious data. Scraping provides hackers with an opportunity to steal everything inside.

To prevent abuse, it's essential to secure your system. First, ensure that your computer firewall protects your network connection. Next, install antivirus software and update it regularly. Finally, encrypt your data storage device. Many systems use AES encryption standards, but that isn't enough to guarantee total security.

Additionally, you shouldn't host your data on servers located within a single country. Doing so increases your chance of running into problems with international law enforcement agencies.

Lastly, consider limiting your exposure to malicious actors. To do this, configure your web browser to block known malware domains whenever possible. Keep in mind that blocking domain names alone isn't sufficient to protect you completely.

Ultimately, web scraping is perfectly legitimate and safe. But it's crucial to remain aware of the potential pitfalls involved. With that in mind, now that you know the basics, let's talk about some practical applications for web scraping.

Are you ready to build a website? Get started with our beginner guide to HTML5 development.

You've probably heard of web scraping before but don't quite understand what it actually means. It's also called "web crawling" and involves taking information from one site and then using that same information on another site without directly visiting the second site. This often happens when we're looking at news stories online because there may be an article with valuable information buried deep within multiple pages. So instead of having to click through each page manually, a scraper will go back and find all the articles that contain the relevant content and pull them up into one place so we can read them more easily.

So why would anyone want to do this? Well, companies like Google and Facebook have built entire businesses around collecting as much data about users as possible. They need their algorithms to work properly and they rely heavily on user-generated input to make decisions. If someone were able to collect the right kind of data, they could potentially build better AI programs than these giants already have. And while many people might not care whether those companies use such technology, others might feel differently. In fact, there are plenty of reasons why it might be illegal to scrape sites unless certain conditions are met.

Here's everything you need to know about how web scraping works and where you stand if you decide to try your hand at it.

How do you know if it is legal to scrape a website?

It depends on who owns the website. The first thing to check is its terms of service agreement. Many major websites allow web scraping under specific circumstances and even provide APIs that let you access their services programmatically. However, other websites simply ask you to stop doing whatever you're doing. You'll usually see something along the lines of this in the footer of every webpage.

If you think you own the rights to the data being scraped, you should contact the company hosting the website. Make sure you get permission before going ahead with any scraping activities. Some websites explicitly prohibit scraping and will send you cease and desist letters. Others aren't too concerned about it and expect you to just move on. Either way, it's best to find out before starting any project.

What is web scraping What are some ways that companies use web scraping?

There are three main types of web scraping projects. Each has different requirements depending on who owns the data being scraped.

1. Publicly accessible data

In most cases, publically accessible datasets on the internet fall into this category. For example, government agencies tend to put all kinds of information freely available on their websites. These include census data, tax records, crime statistics, and voter registration details. Companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon all take advantage of these resources to improve their products.

2. Data generated by third parties

This includes things like social media posts, video uploads, blog comments, forum discussions, and anything else created by outside contributors. Again, these are free for everyone to use and no permissions are required. That said, it's important to note that some governments restrict access to data generated by citizens to prevent fraud. So if you plan to scrape data that was generated by private individuals, you'd likely need to obtain written consent.

3. Content owned by others

Content that belongs solely to someone else doesn't necessarily require approval, but it does depend on what exactly you intend to do with it. There's nothing inherently wrong with copying content owned by others, provided you pay them fair compensation for it. However, if you're planning to post screenshots, videos, images, audio files, or other forms of media on a new platform, you'll almost certainly need to seek permission from the owner of the original material.

How web scraping is useful?

The value of web scraping lies mainly in its versatility. Scraping isn't limited to particular industries or platforms - you can use it to gather nearly any type of information on virtually any topic imaginable. Here are some examples of common uses:

Automated marketing campaigns

Scrapers are commonly used during automated marketing campaigns. A single bot can automatically search thousands of websites for keywords related to your product offering, generate email addresses, create landing pages and followup sequences, and perform countless other tasks. This process makes it easier to target potential customers and increases conversion rates dramatically.

Autonomous cars

Self-driving vehicles use machine learning models trained on vast amounts of real world driving footage to navigate roads safely and efficiently. It requires huge volumes of raw sensor data to train these models effectively, which is why companies like Uber and Lyft spend millions building their own fleets of self-driven taxis. Automation experts predict that autonomous vehicle systems will save tens of trillions of dollars over the next few decades due to reduced traffic accidents and fuel costs.

Data science

Machine learning relies on large quantities of training data gathered across various sources. Web scraping provides an efficient method for gathering such data quickly. Researchers can use tools like BeautifulSoup (part of Python), RegexpKit (Swift), and Apache Nutch (JavaScript) to parse HTML pages containing structured data. Then they can analyze the results to determine patterns between items that correlate well together.

Search engines

Most modern search engines crawl the entirety of the internet in order to return accurate results based on our queries. This is made possible thanks to web scraping since most websites publish their content in XML format, making it very simple to extract text from individual pages. Search engine providers like Bing and Yahoo! now employ teams of human coders to review and index the contents of billions of webpages every day.

Legal questions aside, web scraping offers tremendous benefits to consumers at little cost.

Is web scraping for commercial use legal?

Many websites ban scraping outright rather than asking you to leave when you start snooping around. Even when you're allowed to continue browsing, you still run the risk of getting caught. Websites typically offer two options for dealing with unauthorized access:

Require explicit authorization from the end user. This option allows visitors to browse the site normally, but only after providing proper credentials. Sites like GitHub and Stack Overflow enforce this model by requiring signups prior to accessing protected features.

Block access altogether. This approach prevents unauthorised visitors from viewing sensitive areas of the website until they provide valid credentials. Popular destinations like Github and Reddit use this strategy to protect their reputations.

Websites generally prefer the former solution. Not only does it encourage repeat visits, but it reduces the chances of accidental leaks since only authorised users can view confidential documents.

As long as you're aware of the risks involved and act responsibly, web scraping shouldn't cause you any problems. Just remember to keep track of your IP address and only scrape data that falls under open licenses.