What laws should I be aware of if I were to start a business scraping profile content from a website and using this content to build another website?
<p>The idea is to build websites for people (in the UK (at least to start with)) using content that they have uploaded to another website. I will cold-call them, ask them if they would like a website and if they do, I build them one using content that they have uploaded to another website, to save them having to dig out the content again for me.</p>
<p>I understand that cold-calling in the UK is legal, providing that you have vetted the number against the <a href="https://www.tpsonline.org.uk/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Telephone Preference Service</a> (TPS) and I think they have to be a limited company too.</p>
<p>Although I'm not overly clear on the legalities, my rough understanding is that scraping information from a website is legal, even if against their ToS. Is that correct? I assume there wouldn't be any copyright infringement issues, as the content belongs to the owner of the profile rather than the website that they uploaded it (presumably?)</p>
<p>If I were to scrape contact information from that website in order to build a list of people to contact, would I be breaching any data protection laws by holding onto said contact information that I have collected?</p>
<p>Any advice or pointers on related laws etc that I should be aware of or things I should avoid would be much appreciated.</p>

<h2>The laws that make this totally illegal</h2>
<blockquote>
<p>... scraping information from a website is legal, even if against their ToS. Is that correct?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>No, that is not correct.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I assume there wouldn't be any copyright infringement issues, as the content belongs to the owner of the profile rather than the website that they uploaded it (presumably?)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You assume incorrectly. Yes, the owner licensed the material to the website - they didn't licence it to you. Many websites (including this one) allow other users to benefit from that licence - but you're not complying with the ToS, including the license. By copying it without the owner's permission (even from the website) you are breaching their copyright.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>... would I be breaching any data protection laws by holding onto said contact information that I have collected?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>The GDPR has 6 lawful basis for collecting personal information: consent, contract, legal obligation, vital interest, public task, or legitimate interests. Your usage is none of those.</p>

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