Contact scraping

In online advertising, contact scraping is the practice of obtaining access to a customer's e-mail account in
order to retrieve contact information that is then used for marketing purposes.

The New York Times refers to the practices of Tagged, MyLife and desktopdating.net as "contact
scraping".[1]

Several commercial packages are available that implement contact scraping for their customers, including
ViralInviter, TrafficXplode, and TheTsunamiEffect.[2]

Contact scraping is one of the applications of web scraping, and the example of email scraping tools
include Uipath, Import.io, and Screen Scraper.[3] The alternative web scraping tools include UzunExt, R
functions, and Python Beautiful Soup. The legal issues of contact scraping is under the legality of web
scraping.

Web scraping tools

Following web scraping tools can be used as alternatives for contact scraping:

1. UzunExt is an approach of data scraping in which string methods and crawling process are
applied to extract information without using a DOM Tree .[4]
2. R functions data. rm() and data. rm.a() can be used as a web scraping strategy.[5]
3. Python Beautiful Soup libraries can be used to scrape data and converted data into csv
files.[6]

Legal issues

United States

In the United States, there exists three most commonly legal claims related to web scraping: compilation
copyright infringement, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), and electronic trespass to
chattel claims. For example, the users of "scraping tools" may violate the electronic trespass to chattel
claims.[7] One of the well-known cases is Intel Corp. v. Hamidi, in which the US court decided that the
computer context was not included in the common law trespass claims.[8][9] However, the three legal
claims have been changed doctrinally, and it is uncertain whether the claims will still exist in the
future.[7][10] For instance, the applicability of the CFAA has been narrowed due to the technical similarities
between web scraping and web browsing.[11] In the case of EF Cultural Travel BV v. Zefer Corp., the
court declined to apply CFAA since EF failed to meet the standard for "damage".[12]

European Union

By the Article 14 of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), data controllers are obligated to
inform individuals before processing personal data.[13] In the case of Bisnode vs. Polish Supervisory
Authority, Bisnode obtained personal data from the government public register of business activity, and the
data were used for business purpose. However, Bisnode only obtained email addresses for some of the
people, so the mail notifications were only sent to those individuals. Instead of directly informing other
people, Bisnode simply posted a notice on its website, and thus it failed to comply with the GDPR’s Article
14 obligations.[14][15]

Australia

In Australia, address‑harvesting software and harvested‑address lists must not be supplied, acquired, or used
under the Spam Act 2003. The Spam Act also requires all marketing emails to be sent with the consent of
the recipients, and all emails must include an opt-out facility.[16] The company behind the GraysOnline
shopping websites was fined after sending emails that breached the Spam Act. GraysOnline sent messages
without an option for recipients to opt-out of receiving further emails, and it sent emails to people who had
previously withdrawn their consent from receiving Grays' emails.[17][18]

China

Under the Cybersecurity Law of the People's Republic of China, web crawling of publicly available
information is regarded as legal, but it would be illegal to obtain nonpublic, sensitive personal information
without consent.[19] On November 24, 2017, three people were convicted of the crime of illegally scraping
information system data stored on the server of Beijing ByteDance Networking Technology Co., Ltd.[20]

See also
Web scraping
Data scraping
Information extraction
Web crawler
Web archiving
Search engine scraping

References
1. Typing In an E-Mail Address, and Giving Up Your Friends’ as Well (https://www.nytimes.com/
2009/06/20/technology/internet/20shortcuts.html)
2. 'Viral inviters' want your e-mail contact list (http://windowssecrets.com/2009/03/19/02-Viral-in
viters-want-your-e-mail-contact-list)
3. "Web Scraping" (https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/springerreference_66103), SpringerReference,
Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 2011, doi:10.1007/springerreference_66103 (https://doi.
org/10.1007%2Fspringerreference_66103), S2CID 246467465 (https://api.semanticscholar.
org/CorpusID:246467465), retrieved 2020-11-03
4. Uzun, E. (2020). "A Novel Web Scraping Approach Using the Additional Information
Obtained From Web Pages" (https://doi.org/10.1109%2FACCESS.2020.2984503). IEEE
Access. 8: 61726–61740. doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2984503 (https://doi.org/10.1109%2F
ACCESS.2020.2984503). ISSN 2169-3536 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/2169-3536).
S2CID 215740364 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:215740364).
 5. Vallone, A., Coro, C. and Beatriz, S. (2020). "Strategies to access web-enabled urban spatial
data for socioeconomic research using R functions". Journal of Geographical Systems:
Spatial Theory, Models, Methods, and Data. 22 (2): 217–34. Bibcode:2020JGS....22..217V
(https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020JGS....22..217V). doi:10.1007/s10109-019-00309-y
(https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10109-019-00309-y). S2CID 202181499 (https://api.semanticsc
holar.org/CorpusID:202181499).
6. Vela, Belen; Cavero, Jose Maria; Caceres, Paloma; Cuesta, Carlos E. (2019). "A Semi-
Automatic Data–Scraping Method for the Public Transport Domain" (https://doi.org/10.110
9%2Faccess.2019.2932197). IEEE Access. 7: 105627–105637.
doi:10.1109/access.2019.2932197 (https://doi.org/10.1109%2Faccess.2019.2932197).
ISSN 2169-3536 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/2169-3536). S2CID 201068464 (https://api.s
emanticscholar.org/CorpusID:201068464).
7. Hirschey, Jeffrey (2014). "Symbiotic Relationships: Pragmatic Acceptance of Data Scraping"
(https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2419167). SSRN Electronic Journal.
doi:10.2139/ssrn.2419167 (https://doi.org/10.2139%2Fssrn.2419167). ISSN 1556-5068 (http
s://www.worldcat.org/issn/1556-5068).
8. "Internet Law, Ch. 06: Trespass to Chattels" (http://www.tomwbell.com/NetLaw/Ch06.html).
www.tomwbell.com. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
9. Beckham, J. Brian (2003). "Intel v. Hamidi: Spam as a Trespass to Chattels - Deconstruction
of a Private Right of Action in California" (https://repository.law.uic.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?a
rticle=1084&context=jitpl). The John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy
Law. 22: 205–228.
10. "FAQ about linking – Are website terms of use binding contracts?" (https://web.archive.org/w
eb/20020308222536/http://www.chillingeffects.org/linking/faq.cgi#QID596).
www.chillingeffects.org. 2007-08-20. Archived from the original (http://www.chillingeffects.or
g/linking/faq.cgi#QID596) on 2002-03-08. Retrieved 2007-08-20.
11. Christensen, J. (2020). "The Demise of the Cfaa in Data Scraping Cases". Notre Dame
Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy. 34 (2): 529–47.
12. "Controversy Surrounds 'Screen Scrapers': Software Helps Users Access Web Sites But
Activity by Competitors Comes Under SCrutiny" (https://corporate.findlaw.com/law-library/co
ntroversy-surrounds-screen-scrapers-software-helps-users.html). Findlaw. Retrieved
2020-11-12.
13. Philip H. Liu, Mark Edward Davis (2015–16). "Web Scraping - Limits on Free Samples".
Landslide. 8.
14. Tomáš Pikulíka, Peter Štarchoň (2020). "Public registers with personal data under scrutiny of
DPA regulators" (https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.procs.2020.03.033). Procedia Computer
Science. 170: 1174–1179. doi:10.1016/j.procs.2020.03.033 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.pro
cs.2020.03.033).
15. Oxford Analytica (2019). "Europe's national regulators hold key to GDPR success". Expert
Briefings.
16. Infrastructure. "Spam Act 2003" (http://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2016C00614/Html/Te
xt). www.legislation.gov.au. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
17. Torresan, Danielle (2013). "Keeping Good Companies". Informit. 65: 668–669.
18. "Unauthorised photographs on the internet — back on the Attorney-General's agenda".
Internet Law Bulletin. 8. 2005.
19. Lee, Jyh-An (2018). "Hacking into China's Cybersecurity Law" (http://wakeforestlawreview.c
om/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/w05_Lee-crop.pdf) (PDF). Wake Forest Law Review. 53:
57–104.
20. Li Qian, Jiang Tao (2020). "Rethinking Criminal Sanctions on Data Scraping in China Based
on a Case Study of Illegally Obtaining Specific Data by Crawlers". China Legal Science. 8:
136.

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