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Scraping has multiple meanings.

Web scraping is a specific type of scraping, but data via APIs or even torrents could be considered a scrape, even if that data is nicely structured.

The commonality between them is they all have the implication that:

  • the data harvesting is automated
  • the data you harvest is not owned by you, and you don’t have explicit permission to use it
  • the scope of what you harvest is broad and not targeted at retrieving specific limited pieces of data

Any access patterns that broadly correspond to this could be considered scraping.

Original

Scraping has multiple connotations.

Web scraping is a specific type of scraping, but data via APIs or even torrents could be considered a scrape, even if that data is nicely structured.

The commonality between them is they all have the implication that:

  • the data harvesting is automated
  • the data you harvest is not owned by you, and you don’t have explicit permission to use it
  • the scope of what you harvest is broad and not targeted at retrieving specific limited pieces of data

Any access patterns that broadly correspond to this could be considered scraping.