8 Best Practices for Web Crawlers and Scrapers

Best practices for crawlers and scrapers

Data collection using ethical web crawlers and scrapers is a fast and efficient way to fulfil various data needs, such as price monitoring, market research and data aggregation. However, it is best to be wary of respecting the data of users and websites or else you will face the consequences (e.g. prohibition, monetary fines, legal action). This post intends to list some of the most essential best practices for automated crawling and scraping systems to follow.

1.    Following the rules/policies of each website you interact with

A base consensus for evading any trouble when crawling and scraping websites is to read and follow the terms and conditions of each site. When you log in or agree to a website’s terms and conditions, you are essentially signing a contract with the website owner to abide by their rules. If you or your crawlers terminate any of the policies established by a website owner, they have the right to terminate your access to their server.

2.    Only aim at publicly available data

Unless you have permission to access a private database, it’s best to stick with only crawling and scraping publicly available data. Retrieving confidential data violates almost every privacy policy and can easily get you banned or sued.

3.    Do not cause any harm to the websites

The most critical part of ethical crawling and scraping is not harming any of the websites you interact with. Do not target a website with your crawlers at a rate that it cannot handle, or else you will cause it to crash. Most importantly, do not attempt to force entry into any unpermitted private databases.

4.    Gentle data collection

You don’t want to overwhelm the servers of your crawling targets, as it can cause them to crash or simply kick you out. This issue can be avoided by performing scrapes and crawls from various IPs and in time intervals with a controlled frequency. Furthermore, you can prevent asserting too much weight on a server by scheduling your crawls for the website’s off-peak hours.

5.    Don’t violate copyright

You must always consider whether the data you want to extract is protected by copyright. Content such as images, music, videos, and blog posts may be copyrighted by their owners and subsequently subject to copyright laws. Typically, these laws mean that you cannot reuse or repost the protected content for your own gain (without gaining permission or paying a hefty fee). However, you may still be able to scrape the assets depending on the nature of your use of them.

Copyright protection rules vary across the internet and in different countries, so we recommend looking into them before sending crawlers to any web pages.

6.    Don’t violate GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules change how all web-based media are allowed to collect user data (mainly that of EU citizens).

7.    Try scraping from Google’s cached web pages

Google may already have a crawled copy ready for you to use. Take a look at cached web pages through the google search results by clicking on the small drop-down button next to the link. This method allows you to extract the data you need from a web page without taking up space on somebody’s live server.

8.    Check with your lawyer for more detailed recommendations for your case

The advice in this article should not be taken as legal advice for your actions. Perform your due diligence by getting a professional’s opinion (i.e. a legal practitioner) on your projects before implementing them.

Web scraping and crawling are great data extraction methods when done correctly and ethically. At Soft Surge, we only take on external and internal projects that follow relevant policies and best practices.

 

Do you need to extract data? Contact us for a custom solution.

 

Sources:

Previous Post
Dynamic Repricing, Explained
Next Post
Why Price Intelligence Matters

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Fill out this field
Fill out this field
Please enter a valid email address.
You need to agree with the terms to proceed

Recent Posts

Related Topics

Crawling and Scraping