Scrapers feel data there for the taking

[KiwiCoromandel]

Scrapers feel data there for the taking

08.03.05

by Clayton Hirst

In just three weeks some 7.5 million pages of information were downloaded from the Yell.com website to a computer system near Birmingham.

At the peak of this extraordinary operation, which happened early last year and was masterminded by only one person, around 33,000 pages of the online directory were copied each hour, day and night.

This was not an isolated incident. Over the past year Yell has been targeted in myriad attempts to copy all the names and telephone numbers on its database, part of a growing phenomenon known as data scraping.

Using specialist software, unscrupulous individuals are copying vast amounts of data from commercial websites to be used for anything from market research to organised crime.

No one knows exactly how widespread data scraping is, but companies such as Yell have noticed a sharp rise. In the past year the FTSE 100 company has served at least three High Court injunctions on individuals involved in the practice, and it has recently stepped up monitoring on its database for illegal activity.

"We are very protective of our intellectual property and won’t hesitate to take strong action to safeguard it," said a Yell spokesman.

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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1...jectID=10114048