Computer Fraud and Abuse Act – “Scraping” public data probably doesn’t violate CFAA

Description

Abstract: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has again determined that the automated “scraping” of an online networking platform’s publicly available data probably doesn’t violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The U.S. Supreme Court had directed the appellate court to reconsider its earlier determination based on a subsequent high court ruling on the CFAA. But, in the end, the Ninth Circuit found that it was right all along. This article reviews the court’s determination that when a computer network generally permits public access to its data, a user’s accessing of that data likely won’t qualify as unauthorized access under the CFAA. hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp., No. 17-16783, -2038 (9th Cir. April 18, 2022).