Web scraping can be an ethical way to obtain data for many purposes,
such as business research or journalism,
provided that the sources respect copyright laws and do not undermine others’ revenue models.
It is illegal in most cases to scrape paywall content, as it breaches terms of service and circumvents fees that content providers charge to recoup costs.
Personal data should never be scraped without consent,
and the original data source should always be credited;
a breach of this moral code could result in failed projects, legal challenges, and irreparable damage to reputations.
To obtain data ethically, respect the rights of content owners, ensure fair payments are made where necessary, and always credit the source of any scraped data.