Author(s)

Sheng Shiwen ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Beijing Normal University, No. 19, Xinjiekouwai Street, Haidian District, Beijing, China

Corresponding Author

Sheng Shiwen

ABSTRACT

As internet access technology evolves, the era of big data has made web crawlers essential for data collection. However, the conflict between data collection and data protection is significant. Judicial limitations on criminalizing the use of web crawlers for public data collection must balance these interests. It is crucial to distinguish between legitimate data collection and activities that harm computer information systems. This paper summarizes the perspective of judicial cases to provide a clear definition of "public data." It uses legal hermeneutics to develop specific and actionable criteria for elements such as "violation of state regulations." This approach aims to clarify the criminalization of web crawlers' access to public data. Furthermore, it seeks to confirm the boundaries of the offense of using web crawlers to crawl public data. The paper identifies the types of data that can be collected and the technical methods that can be used. This helps avoid the indiscriminate placement of all acts of crawling public data within the scope of criminal penalties. In the current big data context, a balanced criminal law framework that recognizes the neutrality of technology and encourages innovation, while safeguarding data security and fair competition, is the basis on which to manage the complexity of web crawling activities effectively.

KEYWORDS

Web crawler, public data, crime of damaging computer information system

CITE THIS PAPER

Sheng Shiwen, Typology and Judicial Limitations on the Criminalization of Crawling of Public Data. Science of Law Journal (2024) Vol. 3: 100-108. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/DOI: 10.23977/law.2024.030515.

REFERENCES

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