Scrapers feel data there for the taking

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.

The reason companies like Yell are so worried is the potential damage that data scraping can do to their brands if the information falls into the wrong hands.

"In the extreme, data scraping could be used by a crime gang to steal information from a site," said Simon Moores, managing director of Zentelligence, a technology research organisation. "They could then use the data to spoof the internet domain and then sell advertising."

You don't have to be a tech expert to data scrape. It can be done from a home computer and the necessary software is available on the internet for immediate download for as little as 50 ($131).

For more sophisticated data-scraping exercises, there are dozens of companies in the US and Britain that will tailor software for a fee.

Scrape Goat is one of the better-known US firms specialising in this area. It claims it "reserves the right" to refuse work from anyone wanting to use its software in an illegal way.

But the company says on its website that "it is up to you to determine the legality of the way you plan to use our scrapers".

The practice isn't outside the law per se. John Lever runs Systems Services, a Hertfordshire company that specialises in data scraping.

He said: "I'll use whatever means are required to obtain the data, so long as it is legal."

While data scraping is only now beginning to be recognised as a phenomenon, its roots are in the late 1990s, when much internet data was freely available.

Most internet companies now realise data is their biggest asset and that they must charge for its use.

One data scraper, an IT expert who last year was served with an injunction for copying data from a commercial website, said: "These companies are using bully-boy tactics. You can't fight them unless you have half a million pounds.

"What's the point in all this information available on the web if you can't use it?"

- INDEPENDENT