Is it legal to scrape email addresses from websites?

The legality of email scraping exists in a complex legal gray area that varies by jurisdiction and use case.

United States:

Scraping publicly available information is generally legal under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), as established in hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn
However, using scraped emails for unsolicited marketing violates the CAN-SPAM Act
CAN-SPAM requires recipients to opt-in or have an existing business relationship with you

European Union:

GDPR imposes strict requirements on collecting and processing personal data, including email addresses:

You must have a lawful basis (consent or legitimate interest)
Provide transparency about data collection
Allow data subjects to request deletion
Violating GDPR can result in fines up to €20 million or 4% of annual global turnover

Beyond legal considerations, scraping emails may violate a website's Terms of Service, which can lead to:

Best practices for compliant email extraction:

Only scrape publicly displayed contact information intended for business inquiries (like contact pages)
Respect robots.txt directives
Never use scraped emails for spam or unsolicited marketing
Provide clear opt-out mechanisms if you do contact people
Maintain transparency about how you obtained email addresses
For B2B lead generation, focus on business contact information rather than personal emails
Always verify compliance with local regulations before starting

Risk mitigation:

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