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The users agreed to share their data with Facebook, not some other company. If they didn't prevent this, they'd be asking for another Cambridge Analytica

jasfi 4y ago
That is a very good point, but surely it was taken into consideration when scraping was declared legal?
- danuker 4y ago
  https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/18/web-scraping-legal-court/ https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/18/web-scraping-legal-court/
- stefan_ 4y ago
  All that case says is "scraping is not a violation of the CFAA". But of course the scraped data still exists in legal limbo; maybe you can compute derived information from it, but the moment a scraper reproduces it there is all of copyright law waiting for them.
  - jasfi 4y ago
    In that case, the user owns the copyright, not the company, as the user is the author. So it would be up to them to take legal action if deemed necessary.
stickfigure 4y ago
The users agreed to share their data with everyone that uses Instagram. Because that's how the site works.
- kube-system 4y ago
  There’s an important difference between technically consenting and informed consent. Given what I know about the bot problem on Instagram, I would imagine many people have been tricked into sharing their private profiles with scraping bots. Many bots are copying real people’s profiles and then spamming their friends with follow requests. It’s highly effective and gives these bots access to private profiles. Fooling people is fraudulent, period.
greatgib 4y ago
The user agreed in facebook to have is data "public", so it can't complain that a robot scrap it. Nothing prevents him to restrict access to his pages an data to "trusted" friends.
- kube-system 4y ago
  The description in the article sounds like it scrapes private profile data. > Octopus designed the software to scrape data accessible to the user when logged into their accounts
  - greatgib 4y ago
    I don't think so, it is more like you scrape what is accessible to this user. So in the end you will scrape your friends data. This is why I said that you are free to only share with friends that 'you trust'.
  - Kwpolska 4y ago
    Were they showing the private data to everyone, or just to the person whose account was used for the scraping? If it’s the latter, then this is also not a crime, it is just someone accessing data they have been authorized to access, but in an automated way.

jasfi 4y ago

That is a very good point, but surely it was taken into consideration when scraping was declared legal?

danuker 4y ago
https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/18/web-scraping-legal-court/ https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/18/web-scraping-legal-court/
stefan_ 4y ago
All that case says is "scraping is not a violation of the CFAA". But of course the scraped data still exists in legal limbo; maybe you can compute derived information from it, but the moment a scraper reproduces it there is all of copyright law waiting for them.
- jasfi 4y ago
  In that case, the user owns the copyright, not the company, as the user is the author. So it would be up to them to take legal action if deemed necessary.

stickfigure 4y ago

The users agreed to share their data with everyone that uses Instagram. Because that's how the site works.

kube-system 4y ago
There’s an important difference between technically consenting and informed consent. Given what I know about the bot problem on Instagram, I would imagine many people have been tricked into sharing their private profiles with scraping bots. Many bots are copying real people’s profiles and then spamming their friends with follow requests. It’s highly effective and gives these bots access to private profiles. Fooling people is fraudulent, period.

greatgib 4y ago

The user agreed in facebook to have is data "public", so it can't complain that a robot scrap it. Nothing prevents him to restrict access to his pages an data to "trusted" friends.

kube-system 4y ago
The description in the article sounds like it scrapes private profile data. > Octopus designed the software to scrape data accessible to the user when logged into their accounts
- greatgib 4y ago
  I don't think so, it is more like you scrape what is accessible to this user. So in the end you will scrape your friends data. This is why I said that you are free to only share with friends that 'you trust'.
- Kwpolska 4y ago
  Were they showing the private data to everyone, or just to the person whose account was used for the scraping? If it’s the latter, then this is also not a crime, it is just someone accessing data they have been authorized to access, but in an automated way.