The Hidden Harm Behind Internet Scraping
Most people have no idea how much of their personal information is being quietly “scraped” from the internet every day. Scraping means using automated bots to copy everything they can find online, photos, comments, posts, résumés, even location data, and feed it into massive databases that power artificial intelligence, facial recognition, and targeted advertising.
While scraping makes some parts of the web work (like search engines and archives), the latest wave, driven by AI, has crossed a dangerous line.
Here’s why it matters to all of us:
- You lose control over your data.
Once your information is scraped, it’s gone, copied, sold, and reused endlessly. You can’t correct it or delete it. - You can be tracked anywhere.
Scraped photos and posts are now used to identify and follow people across the internet and in real life through facial recognition tools. - It feeds manipulation.
AI systems built on scraped data are used to profile you and predict your behaviour, shaping what you see online, what offers you get, and sometimes even what opportunities you’re denied. - It’s a silent data breach.
Scraping allows companies and criminals alike to collect personal information without breaking into any system, just by taking what’s publicly visible. - It erodes trust and privacy for everyone.
If anything you share online can be taken and repurposed without permission, public life itself becomes a form of surveillance.
The authors of The Great Scrape call for a major rethink of data rights. They argue that scraping should be treated as a regulated privilege, not a free-for-all. It should only be allowed when it clearly serves the public interest, for example, in journalism or scientific research, not for exploitation or manipulation.
Because if we don’t draw that line soon, the web won’t just be a place we share our lives, it will be the primary tool used to watch, predict, and profit from them.
