Yes, web scraping is legal in New York when conducted without violating federal or state laws, but compliance with copyright, contract, and privacy statutes is mandatory. Courts have upheld scraping as permissible under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) if no unauthorized access occurs, while New York’s 2023 Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act (SHIELD Act) imposes data protection obligations on scraped personal information. Businesses must also adhere to the 2026 NYDFS Cybersecurity Regulation amendments, which may apply if scraping involves regulated financial data.
Key Regulations for Web Scraping in New York
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Copyright Law (17 U.S.C. § 107): Scraping copyrighted content without fair use justification or permission violates federal law, as affirmed in Authors Guild v. Google (2015). New York courts defer to this precedent, requiring scrapers to demonstrate transformative use or de minimis extraction.
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Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA): The Second Circuit’s hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn (2019) ruling permits scraping public data unless circumventing technical barriers (e.g., login walls) constitutes unauthorized access. New York businesses must avoid scraping behind paywalls or violating terms of service that prohibit automated data extraction.
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SHIELD Act & NYDFS Regulations: The SHIELD Act (effective March 2023) mandates reasonable safeguards for scraped personal data, including encryption and access controls. The 2026 NYDFS amendments expand these requirements to third-party data handlers, imposing annual risk assessments and incident reporting for financial-sector scrapers.