Important disclaimer
This article provides general information, not legal advice. Laws, platform terms, and the facts of each use case differ. Consult a qualified lawyer if you need advice about a specific collection, export, or redistribution workflow.
The short answer
There is no reliable rule that scraping is always legal or always illegal. The answer can depend on:
- how the information is accessed;
- the website terms that apply;
- whether access controls are bypassed;
- what content is collected;
- whether personal information is involved;
- how the information is stored, shared, or sold; and
- which country's or state's laws apply.
The fact that information is visible on a public webpage does not, by itself, grant permission to collect, reuse, or redistribute it for every purpose. Likewise, automation or scale can affect the risk analysis, but neither one supplies a universal legal test.
Zillow's current terms matter
Zillow's Terms of Use currently prohibit automated queries, including screen and database scraping, spiders, robots, crawlers, and activity intended to obtain information from Zillow's services. The Terms also contain restrictions concerning access, copying, display, redistribution, interference with the service, and access controls.
Those terms may change. Anyone collecting information from Zillow should read the version in effect at the time and obtain legal advice about whether and how it applies to their workflow. Describing information as "publicly available" does not make the terms irrelevant.
What the hiQ decision does—and does not—say
The 2022 Ninth Circuit decision in hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp. is often summarized too broadly. The dispute involved information on public LinkedIn profiles and a request for a preliminary injunction. The court addressed whether accessing those public pages was likely to be "without authorization" under the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
The decision did not create a general right to scrape any website. It did not decide that every collection method or downstream use complies with contracts, copyright, privacy law, state law, or other legal obligations. It also did not decide the legality of collecting data from Zillow.
Access and reuse are different questions
Whether someone can view or technically collect information is not the same as whether they may copy, retain, republish, sell, or use every part of it. A property page can contain facts from public records alongside photographs, descriptions, valuations, contact details, and other material with different sources and legal protections.
Copyright generally protects original expression rather than facts themselves, but selecting, arranging, copying, or redistributing content can present separate questions. The U.S. Copyright Office provides a general overview of copyright protection. Privacy, publicity, database, contract, and consumer-protection rules may also apply depending on the information and jurisdiction.
Questions to evaluate before collecting property data
The following questions can help identify issues for a legal review. They are not a safe-harbor checklist.
- How is access obtained? Determine whether the workflow uses public pages, an account, an API, or another access method, and whether it encounters authentication, CAPTCHAs, blocks, or other controls.
- What terms apply? Review the current terms for the website, account, product, API, and any other service involved.
- What is being collected? Distinguish basic property facts from photographs, written descriptions, valuations, professional profiles, contact details, and personal information.
- What happens after collection? Internal analysis, client work, publication, redistribution, resale, and automated decision-making can raise different issues.
- What safeguards are appropriate? Consider data minimization, retention limits, access controls, accuracy checks, deletion processes, and documented responses to complaints.
- Which laws apply? The location of the operator, user, people represented in the data, and intended audience may all matter.
Using PropertyDataLabs does not decide the legal question
Zillow Data Exporter processes information available in the user's browser. PropertyDataLabs does not operate its own web-collection network for Cloud workflows. Instead, it submits requested URLs to specialist third-party collection providers, with Bright Data serving as the primary provider, and then structures, processes, and exports the information those providers return.
The use of a third-party provider changes who operates the collection infrastructure, but it does not by itself determine whether a specific workflow or downstream use is permitted. Provider terms, source-site terms, content rights, privacy obligations, and the intended use may still matter.
You are responsible for ensuring that your access to and use of third-party services and information complies with applicable laws, contracts, licenses, and third-party terms. Review our trademark, affiliation, and service disclaimer and privacy policy for more information about the Service and its providers.
Practical next steps
Before starting a commercial, recurring, or high-volume collection project:
- read the current terms for every service involved;
- document the source, purpose, fields, retention period, and intended recipients;
- do not bypass authentication or technical access controls;
- avoid republishing photographs, written descriptions, or personal information unless you have the rights and legal basis to do so;
- collect only the information needed for the stated purpose; and
- ask a qualified lawyer to review the actual workflow when the consequences matter.
Conclusion
Public visibility is only one fact in a broader analysis. Access method, platform terms, content rights, privacy obligations, downstream use, and jurisdiction all matter. Treat simple claims that "public data is always legal to scrape" or that "scraping becomes illegal at a particular scale" as warning signs: the law does not reduce to either statement.