2 min read

How do you legally extract data from web pages?

Web scraping involves extracting data from other companies' websites, but there are legal ways to perform this technique without jumping into legal holes.
How do you legally extract data from web pages?
Image by @autoscraping and @freepik

Taking unorganized online data to transform it into gold in a legal manner

Web scraping is a modern technology available for 4.0 industries or companies making decisions based on online data.

Today's society performs many everyday activities in the digital world, the internet. Through web scraping, specialized companies offer data extraction and analysis for companies to make crucial decisions based on real-time information about the market and its behavior to move in the right direction through informed choices.  

Web scraping involves extracting data from other companies' websites, but there are legal ways to perform this technique without jumping into legal holes.  

Information online is free to use until this scraped data is misused, such as selling this data to another company or posting this collected data online; this can generate a legal issue due to the disrespect of data protection policies on websites in the US and worldwide.

User's personal information?

Extracting data from a website might not be illegal if certain elements are kept within legal boundaries.

Private data from users' use is a big part of this set of rules; if respected and treated with the purpose of a better understanding of the market and variables, it can be allowed but not to share this information with others to be published or use differently without users' consent.

Intellectual property?

When applying a web scraping technique on a website, a crucial element to pay attention to is intellectual property; many laws protect them from being stolen or used without the owner's consent.

In modern times, many digital codes or assets are considered part of this, so companies scraping data must ensure not to share information related to companies' intellectual property while extracting data from the web.

What are Data Protection Policies about?

With the transition of many activities onto the internet, many people's private information is filled and saved on servers online; due to many possible threats to users exposing their real-world data, a series of rules were created for websites to host this critical information with care and very safe mechanism to ensure nobody unauthorized can use clients personal data for other purposes than the ones explained in each website or service users accept to provide this information.

Web scraping by itself is a legal practice, and just like in the real world are specific actions between an activity that can transform it into an illegal activity. So follow these recommendations to keep taking your business in the right direction.

What are the advantages of extracting data for my business?

  1. Access to valuable information: Legally extracting data online can provide access to valuable information that can be used for research, marketing, or business purposes. This data can include customer demographics, consumer behavior, market trends, and competitor analysis, which can help organizations make informed decisions.
  2. Improved efficiency: Data extraction tools and software can automate collecting and organizing data, saving time and improving efficiency. This can particularly benefit large-scale data extraction projects or ongoing data monitoring activities.
  3. Competitive advantage: Legally extracted data can give organizations a competitive advantage by enabling them to make data-driven decisions, identify market opportunities, and improve their overall performance. This can lead to increased revenue, improved customer satisfaction, and a stronger market position.
For more information, visit us at autoscraping.com                           AutoScraping. “Working next to 4.0 Industries to change the world.”