Events

In observance of International Data Privacy Day, the Mitigating Unauthorized Scraping Alliance (MUSA) hosted an event on January 31, 2023, featuring industry, legal, and academic experts who examined the issue of unauthorized data scraping and its impacts. Check out the videos below for some of the highlights from the event.

Event Date/Time:

Thursday May 18th 9:00 PST/ 12:00 PM EST (45 min talk + Q&A)

Generative AI presents a significant opportunity for technology, innovation, and connection, yet its dramatic growth has raised questions about how to use this innovation in ethical and legal ways that require careful consideration by industry, policymakers, and regulators. This MUSA webinar explored whether the growing demand for datasets to be used to feed generative AI model training has contributed to the rise of unauthorized scraping and whether this gives rise to questions around privacy risks and the need for transparency. Experts from civil society, academic and industry fields came together to discuss the benefits, risks, and challenges of generative AI and its relationship to unauthorized scraping.

The Mitigating Unauthorized Scraping Alliance (MUSA) brings together industry members and experts to address challenges and establish a unified front against unauthorized scraping and data misuse. It is working with member companies and experts to publish industry-aligned practices to mitigate unauthorized scraping across member platforms, reduce the attack vector for unauthorized scraping threat actors, and serve as a resource for media and policymaker engagement.

Speakers and Moderator:

Daniel Gervais, Professor, Vanderbilt University

David Patariu, Associate, Venable LLP; Privacy Law Specialist (PLS); International Association of Privacy Professionals Fellow of Information Privacy, CIPP/US, CIPP/E, CIPM; ISC² CCSP, CISSP

Brandi Guerkink, Senior Policy Fellow, Mozilla Foundation

A.J. Zottola, Moderator, Partner, Venable LLP

The Mitigating Unauthorized Scraping Alliance (MUSA) hosted a webinar discussion to examine the technical and legal enforcement mechanisms available to industry to combat unauthorized scraping. This was the first event in a series of webinars examining topics related to unauthorized scraping.

Currently, there are no industry standards for combating unauthorized scraping, and a singular approach to addressing the practice does not exist. However, there are various tools that companies utilize to mitigate unauthorized scraping. This event discussed the need for industry collaboration and highlighted the mechanisms available to companies to combat unauthorized scraping.

MUSA brings together industry members to address challenges and establish a unified front against unauthorized scraping and data misuse. It is working with member companies and experts to publish industry-aligned practices to mitigate unauthorized scraping across member platforms, reduce the attack vector for unauthorized scraping threat actors, and serve as a resource for media and policymaker engagement.

In observance of International Data Privacy Day, the Mitigating Unauthorized Scraping Alliance (MUSA) hosted an event on January 31, 2023, featuring industry, legal, and academic experts who examined the landscape and impacts of unauthorized data scraping.

As threat actors seek to collect public personal data on a large scale for their own gain, how best to regulate data scraping and enforce against unauthorized scraping has become a critical challenge for industry, government, and policy makers. Unauthorized data scraping and the unauthorized use of scraped data have far-reaching impacts on both users and industry that challenge user privacy expectations and can lead to harmful actions, such as spamming, fraudulent communication, or identity theft. In recent years, high-profile court cases, regulatory fines, and newly introduced legislation involving data scraping have drawn media coverage and public attention.