screen scraping

Screen scraping is a technique used to extract data from websites or other web applications.  Screen scraping software automates navigating a user interface, interacting with its content, and extracting data from the website’s HTML or other data displayed on the screen.  Screen scraping is technically legal; although the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act prohibits people from accessing a computer by circumventing the typical protective measures, (username/password) the Ninth Circuit ruled in hiQ Labs v. Linkedin that “It is likely that when a computer network generally permits public access to its data, a user’s accessing that publicly available data will not constitute access without authorization under the CFAAA.” Although screen scraping is technically legal, as of late 2023 the Consumer Fraud Protection Bureau was soliciting comments on measures to better protect consumers from this practice. See the request for comment in the Federal Register. 

See also: This Cambridge University Press article The Legality and Ethics of Web Scraping in Archaeology and this Columbia Science and Technology Law Review article on Data Misappropriation. 

[Last reviewed in July of 2024 by the Wex Definitions Team]

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