PCPD issues joint statement with 15 countries about social media data scraping concerns

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) has issued a joint statement with 15 data protection agencies from countries including  Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom to major social media platforms regarding data scraping and privacy protection. 

This includes major companies such as Alphabet Inc. (YouTube) and Meta Platforms, Inc. (Instagram, Facebook, and Threads). 

The statement calls for regular security updates in response to advancements in data scraping technology and artificial intelligence (AI) in order to prevent illegal data extraction.

It emphasizes that when data scraping is allowed for business or social welfare purposes, companies must ensure compliance with legal and contractual obligations.

They also suggested that companies provide application programming interfaces for third parties to control access to publicly available personal data.

Ada Chung Lai-ling, the Privacy Commissioner, noted that the statement serves as a reminder to protect personal data from illegal scraping and to provide further industry guidance, in view of concerns raised by regulators regarding widespread data scraping by social media platforms.

The PCPD highlighted serious concerns about the impact of data scraping on privacy, noting risks like unauthorized sales of personal data on the dark web, identity theft, and spam.