January 17, 2023

Welcome to the Mitigating Unauthorized Scraping Alliance newsletter, where we highlights topics of interest related to unauthorized data scraping. Unauthorized data scraping is the automated collection of user data at scale that violates a platform's Terms of Service.

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Will Data Privacy Give Digitalization a Black Eye in 2023?

Governments worldwide are continuing to ramp up efforts to increase data privacy in 2023. These efforts include an increase in EU GDPR transgression fees for liable companies and a new privacy enforcement agency created under the California Privacy Rights Act. Read more on CDO Trends

Senator Coons, colleagues introduce legislation to provide public with transparency of social media platforms

Several members on the Senate Judiciary Committee introduced bipartisan legislation entitled the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act (PATA) on December 21, 2022, to increase transparency around social media companies. In particular, the bill seeks to allow independent researchers to access platform data and study social media companies’ actions. The bill protects researchers from any legal liability that may come from scraping a platform’s data if “they comply with various privacy safeguards.” Read more on Senate.gov

Tech companies may have to cough up research data under this bill

The updated Platform Accountability and Transparency Act (PATA) introduced by Senators Christopher Coons and Rob Portman would require digital platforms to provide data for approved research projects. Both platforms and researchers would receive immunity when sharing user data, ameliorating fears of potential legal repercussions. Failure to comply with new data sharing requirements could result in companies losing their liability protections under Section 230 or facing charges of unfair or deceptive trade practices. Read more on The Washington Post

New data privacy laws in various US states: are you ready?

US states, including Virginia, Utah, Colorado, and Connecticut, have privacy laws going into effect in 2023. The patchwork of privacy legislation in the US will pose challenges for tech companies, which need to comply with each individual state law. Read more on Financier World

Vietnam’s Data Protection Regulations: What to Expect in 2023

Vietnam is expected to implement many important changes to data protection laws in 2023. This includes stricter regulation around data collection and data transfer, making it illegal to process personal data without explicit consent; however, the Draft Consumer Protection Law currently does not extend to publicly disclosed data, meaning “scraping of publicly available personal data might be acceptable in Vietnam.” Scraping of non-publicly available personal data is still prohibited and could constitute a crime. Read more on Lexology

New privacy law sees tougher penalties and enforcement powers for serious and repeated privacy breaches

Australia passed the Privacy Legislation Amendment (Enforcement and Other Measures) Bill 2022. Provisions in the bill include increasing the financial penalty for serious or repeated data privacy incidents, providing the Australian Information Commissioner with additional enforcement powers, and allowing the Australian government to enforce against global companies whose data is processed outside of Australia. Read more on Lexology

The Mitigating Unauthorized Scraping Alliance (MUSA) 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.