scraping

Personal data and information are a valuable commodity with which many companies do business. This is also the case on the Internet. Scraping together personal information means scraping in German. It is a dubious method ofdata collection.

Scraping or web scraping involves collecting and linking data from a wide variety of information sources and via the user's own cookies. The vast amounts of data are then used to create digital profiles of Internet users.

On the Internet, there are many social networks in which users post certain personal data: Name, address, mail address. There are also an infinite number of discussion forums and chats in which individuals are active and express their own personal opinions or publish detailed information. Forum participants can discuss questions about health or money problems, housing and social problems. No area of life is left out. Such information, if it is personal, is worth hard cash for many companies. Just think of insurance companies and companies looking for employees.

Scraping companies collect such data by registering under fake names in social networks and newsgroups, thus gaining access to the protected information areas. They browse the websites and collect information on friend circles, profile data and forum posts, which they store on their own server, structure, correlate, place in relation to each other and analyze, and use to create user profiles of Internet users.

In addition to the aforementioned web scraping, there are various other forms of scraping, such as content scraping, price scraping and contact scraping. Content scraping is about collecting content and text that can be marketed through third parties and increase the acceptance of a website. Price scraping is about collecting prices from competing products and using them to optimize your own offerings. And contact scraping is about collecting personal contact information; email addresses, phone numbers, and mobile numbers.