Effort Aims to Raise Awareness and Adoption of Effective Approaches Across Industries
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 30, 2023 – With unauthorized data scraping incidents by threat actors on the rise, the Mitigating Unauthorized Scraping Alliance (MUSA) today released the first non-binding and voluntary industry practices that promote means of detecting, preventing, mitigating, and enforcing against unauthorized data scraping.
These practices were compiled through extensive conversations with industry members and experts on measures to mitigate the risk of unauthorized data scraping. They also draw from industry research conducted by the research firm NewtonX in its study of 1,300 professionals to better understand data extraction prevention.
“Individual company practices to protect against unauthorized scraping have significantly evolved over recent years, despite the absence of industrywide standards,” said Hemu Nigam, partner at Venable LLP and coordinator of the Mitigating Unauthorized Scraping Alliance. “This publication is an important first step to raise awareness and broaden adoption of helpful practices to combat unauthorized data scraping.”
The practices in the publication are divided into institutional, prevention, detection/mitigation, and enforcement categories that highlight measures against unauthorized data scraping which can be maintained and updated effectively over time to serve the needs of companies.
The publication does not claim to be a fully comprehensive list of every unauthorized data scraping mitigation practice that companies may take, nor does it identify which measures will be appropriate for any given platform; however, it offers useful guidance for potential mitigation. In addition, it is necessary to acknowledge that due to the continuously evolving nature of scraping technologies and functional need for public-facing data, even comprehensive detection, mitigation, prevention, and enforcement practices can only reduce the incidence of unauthorized data scraping; they cannot prevent it altogether.
MUSA will host a complimentary webinar discussion on Thursday, March 30, 2023 at 2 p.m. EDT to examine the need for industry collaboration and highlight the mitigation and enforcement mechanisms available to industry to combat unauthorized scraping.
The Mitigating Unauthorized Scraping Alliance brings together leading companies committed to protecting data from unauthorized scraping and misuse. In collaboration with industry members, policymakers, and the public, MUSA is generating a global dialogue around unauthorized data scraping focused on protecting user data through education, advocacy, public-private partnerships, and the sharing of reasonable practices to mitigate unauthorized scraping.