By Zack Whittaker
Summary Notes
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that web scraping, or gathering publicly available data found online, is legally permissible. This ruling removes the fear of criminal liability for those using the technique, such as archivists, journalists, and researchers. However, privacy and security issues should still be taken into consideration when engaging in web scraping.
Key Learnings
- Web scraping is now legally permissible in the US.
- CFAA (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act) no longer applies to web scraping.
- Archivists, journalists, and researchers can now engage in web scraping without fear of criminal liability.
- Privacy and security issues are still a concern when engaging in web scraping.
- The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that web scraping is legal.
- Summary Notes
- Key Learnings
- Ninth Circuit Rules Scraping Publicly Accessible Data is Not a Violation of CFAA
Ninth Circuit Rules Scraping Publicly Accessible Data is Not a Violation of CFAA
The US Ninth Circuit of Appeals has ruled that scraping publicly accessible data on the internet is not a violation of the CFAA, meaning archivists, journalists, researchers, etc. are free to do so without worry. However, privacy and security issues are still a concern. “We will continue to fight to protect our members’ ability to control the information they make available on LinkedIn. When your data is taken without permission and used in ways you haven’t agreed to, that’s not okay.” Companies are still able to protect their users' data from unauthorized scraping, even if it is publicly available.