Watchdog raises alarm over data scraping

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, together with 15 privacy and data protection authorities worldwide, today issued a global joint statement on data scraping and the protection of privacy for social media platforms.

Privacy Commissioner Ada Chung Lai-ling said: "As concerns grow among global regulators about mass scraping of personal data, including data scraping for training artificial intelligence systems, on social media platforms, the PCPD, as the co-chair of the Global Privacy Assembly's International Enforcement Cooperation Working Group, together with the privacy or data protection authorities of other jurisdictions, issued the Joint Statement."

The signatories include privacy or data protection authorities from 15 nations including Australia, Canada, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Data scraping could raise privacy concerns such as exploitation, cyber attacks, identity fraud, direct marketing, or spam.