• Data collection
• Ethics
• Privacy

Ethical status of web scraping via geo targeted proxies

Contents of article:

1. What specifics should one consider to extract data via trusted proxy websites?
2. What is jurisdictions’ impact on web scraping?

Users utilizing Dexodata rotating proxies free trial frequently do so with data gathering with no coding skills via the best datacenter proxies. It is applicable, for instance, to find proper proxies for social networks like YouTube proxies. During communication with clients we have noticed a partly confusion, as users are not sure sometimes whether their plans are ethical or not. As an ethical data gathering infrastructure which offers whitelisted proxies for social networks with full KYC and AML compliance as stated in our Privacy policy, we will offer a general overview of the mentioned issues.

What specifics should one consider to extract data via trusted proxy websites?

Exact conditions may differ as it depends on jurisdiction. On a worldwide scale there is nothing illegal about data harvesting per se. What matters here are the sources you refer to and the data extraction purposes, so trusted proxy websites assist enterprises in Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, South and North America.

• On the one hand, if the info you collect is public knowledge (for instance, available prices, historic exchange rates, weather data, etc.), problems are highly unlikely.
• Main prerequisite for data is whether it is received and processed consensually when it comes to users-related data. In most cases users are informed how their data is gathered, stored, and processed. It is applied when one accesses a web page, mobile app or takes part in an online survey, etc.

Here is an important point. Potentially even a single IP can be enough to make an abstract user a real identifiable person. In this case, acquiring such data could be regarded as a violation.

Happily it happens rarely in general practice. Mainstream attitude in this respect is as follows. If a data row contains no exact identifiers, e.g. names with phone numbers, such a row is viewed as ethical to extract or apply to it in 2023 during free trial of rotating proxies.

That is wholly permitted to mine such data, if a reader has to take substantial extra steps to link an abstract data row with a real person or if additional searches are mandated.

To sum up, considering data of interest is publicly available and does not belong to the personally identifiable type, it is ok to harvest. Recently this principle was upheld by a U.S. Supreme court. 

There are two more guidelines in both legal and ethical terms:

1. Info obtained during a data harvesting session is not intended to be used for destructive purposes. These are blackmailing, extortion, and so on are not fine, obviously. Market research and analysis are totally ethical.
2. Web scraping should not be supposed to do direct harm to a website or business whose data is harvested. Outcompeting it in a bona fide competition harms no one. Trying to do harm to its infrastructure and architecture by sending too many queries and running DDoS attacks is direct harm, for all intents and purposes.

What is jurisdictions’ impact on web scraping?

Tendency to try Dexodata rotating proxies free trial including proxies for social networks (e.g. YouTube proxies) is ethic in the following regions. However consider the aspects below:

• In the US federal legislation does not prohibit data scraping if two conditions are met. It is about publicly available info and the lack of any negative effect on webpage in tech terms, as stated by Techcrunch.
• The European Union explicitly confirmed that any “reproduction of publicly available content” constitutes no violation of laws. Everything is ok in case sensitive personal data is not at stake.
• China imposes no prohibitive limits on data harvesting, at least as long as we scan the sources available in English. So local businesses do scrape data on the Net too.

Dexodata is ever-ready to collaborate with law-abiding companies from all over the globe. Feel free to reach out to us for proxies for social networks in 2023, including YouTube proxies. Rotating proxies free trial is available with unlimited number of geolocations or features to new users.