Unfortunately, for many years and still today, public web data collection – or “web scraping” – has had a negative connotation for several organizations. But it’s time to face reality. To maintain a strong foothold in your industry, get the answers you need for your business, and thrive ahead, you must disregard several common myths. Let’s break them together:

#1 – It’s illegal.

The short answer is, no it’s not. If the website is public, or does not require a log-in, it’s legally accessible. This verdict was most recently displayed in the hiQ Labs vs. LinkedIn case, where the Ninth Circuit ruled data scraping to not be unlawful.

Public web scraping is performed by organizations of all sizes globally. It’s used to evaluate internal operations, back up key business decisions, and get a full grasp of the market to pursue new innovations and boost revenues. Of course, as part of this, compliance regulations must play a major role. Businesses (or their public web data collection providers) have guidelines they must follow to remain legal. This entails a strong understanding of what you are and aren’t allowed to collect. And since there is still limited regulation in the industry, companies are mainly held to moral and ethical standards when it comes to legal data collection.

#2 – It hinders your organization.

Contrary to this belief, public web scraping enhances your organization. It offers real-time, precise insights into your competitors and your customers. This could include anything from pricing to shopping habits, as well as crucial trends and innovations that you should take advantage of in the market.

The pandemic sparked a massive shift to a digital economy. Legacy business strategies like undercover shoppers therefore shifted to online data collection. Now, you can receive even greater and more accurate insights while cutting the time and energy required by your organization as much as 80%. You can increase your teams’ time spent on innovation and truly push your business forward. As result, public data collection strongly benefits consumers as well. They receive more appealing or advanced  products, obviously better pricing, and greater shopping experiences overall.

#3 – It’s legal, but unethical.

This falls on either the organization or the external web data provider. When accessing public data, they must be professional and act with transparency when sourcing the data. This includes all parties firmly abiding by both global compliance regulations and deeply-rooted ethical guidelines. To put it simply, ethical and legal public web scraping offers the same internet view, insights, and transparency that an individual user has access to – and enjoys.

#4 – The sources are private.

In fact, most of today’s web data is public. According to researchers, as of January 2022, roughly 62.5% of our global population (4.95 billion people) uses the internet. And of the data being created from this significant online use, it’s estimated that nearly 70% is public. Essentially, anything that can be opened via a standard browser without a log in. This is what businesses and providers are accessing through web scraping – and the data set only expands each year as more and more people use the internet globally.

#5 – It makes you untrustworthy.

The final common misconception we’ll walk through is that if you collect web data, then you’re up to no good. In reality, various organizations (from startups to large enterprises) around the world are acquiring, analyzing, and employing it to their day-to-day operations – even as you read this article. In order to succeed in today’s constantly moving and highly competitive business world, companies must receive the full picture by utilizing this massive data resource that is only growing.

The web data industry will continue to expand as more and more market sectors begin to take advantage of its benefits. To survive, and as part of our moral obligation, all participants must remember to act legally and ethically at all times. This is essential.

The post Ignore Common Misconceptions About Web Data Collection appeared first on Grit Daily News.

Companies are now increasingly looking at data collected from non-traditional sources, like social media, to determine the creditworthiness and potential investment risk of modern companies. Though online data – such as the number of employees listed on LinkedIn – could easily slip under the radar to many, a sudden rise or fall in reported employee numbers can give a real-time indication of financial issues at a given company well before an official announcement is made.

Publicly available online data – including information on funding rounds or recent appointments – can be collected from websites such as Crunchbase. This information can provide an up-to-the-minute (and free) early warning system about the financial future of companies. This data has the potential to give investors the insights they need to remain competitive in an environment where risk premiums are harder to calculate than ever – especially as COVID-19 continues to fundamentally disrupt the business models of companies worldwide.

How publicly available online data offers a different approach to fraud prevention

All industries face, these days, significant pressure daily to make – and keep – money. But for some industries, like insurance, the added complication of the pandemic’s impact can be overwhelming. In the United States, professional services network Deloitte has issued warnings that the impacts of COVID-19 will be felt for months, if not years, to come across a broad variety of insurance specialties. The impacts range from disrupted investments, finance and capital, underwriting, claims, and actuarial functions due to catalytic events ranging from the closure of nonessential businesses to changes in state and federal regulations.

But with the large insurance pay-outs caused by COVID-19, insurance companies anticipate a pronounced spike in fraud attempts, as difficult economic circumstances tempt businesses to try their luck. The Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Social Security Administration have all issued warnings to be aware of fraudsters trying to take advantage of consumers and businesses during the pandemic. Insurance companies that have furloughed or laid off employees as a result of the pandemic, may struggle to process these claims in a timely manner.

By using automated online data collection solutions, insurers can verify these claims faster. Freely available online data can be a useful tool when it comes to checking on their validity. Online data can help to identify if a claimant’s online profile is at odds with the claim presented. However, large enterprises are constantly generating relevant details, all of which needs to be cross-referenced and analyzed as part of the assessment. Details like stock prices and employees fluctuate constantly, making it nearly impossible for insurers to keep track of these large-scale details manually. This makes an automated data collection solution that gathers data according to defined requirements in real-time even more necessary.

By employing an automated data collection solution, insurers will have real-time indications when something is wrong. This is an example of how publicly available online data can stop fraud in its tracks while allowing multiple legitimate claims to be paid faster. When insurance companies are no longer bleeding money to fraudulent claims, they’ll have more resources for honest businesses whose finances (and employee wellbeing) are under significant threat.

How online data collection can improve insurance underwriting

Without the best tools on hand, collecting all the available online data needed to verify claims can be not only difficult but also immensely time-consuming. Automated online data collection enables insurers to collect more data than if purely traditional means were utilized. It also speeds up the process for claimants who would no longer need to manually fill out endless forms to provide the requisite information. More online data means better risk assessment, which leads to smarter pricing, increased gross margins, and a fundamentally improved underwriting process. It can also make for a much faster onboarding process for new customers, allowing for the insurance company to increase its customer base at a faster rate.

For example, if an insurer wants to ascertain if a struggling hotel chain is creditworthy, automatic data collection solutions can be utilized to scrape public or open data from a number of websites (including 3^rd parties like Booking.com) to see how many rooms are available, and the price they are charging in key locations. This data can give a more realistic assessment of how well the hotel chain is performing financially, which might not be as evident in traditional forms and based on traditional data means.  As insurers can receive these types of updates in real-time (alongside other relevant data like corporate news or stock prices) this represents a superior option to slower-moving avenues. After all, the current occupancy rate is a much better indicator of revenue than more formal financial reports that may be from several weeks or even months ago when the economic picture was much different than it is now due to the fast-paced market changes we’re facing now.

As the economic consequences of the pandemic will almost certainly lead to more sudden spikes in insurance claims, having as much of the data collection process automated and real-time as possible gives businesses the infrastructure necessary to rapidly scale to handle the number of claims they will be inundated with.

What is the right approach to online data collection?

Collecting massive amounts of data at true scale can be arduous if you do not have the right tools and the right operation in place. These challenges can be easily solved with the right data collection set-up. In our competitive market reality, many websites block any activity which seems like it could originate from competitors trying to collect large amounts of data, or that could indicate malicious activity such as botnets. The information available to typical consumers (a.k.a. the general public) is not the same as is the data that’s available to businesses. Therefore, it’s best for businesses to use some form of a data collection network based on residential IP addresses knowingly contributed by global consumers, as this will allow the data to appear as a typical consumer would when collecting online data. By using these types of networks, they can run scenarios that mimic real-time users – like an android user in Thailand or an iPhone user in California – and effectively collect data in any part of the world without restriction.

The new set of challenges brought by the pandemic for the insurance industry should lead them to embrace a new set of technological solutions. If the industry wants to be able to adequately protect itself and come out on the other end of the barrage of new claims 2021 could bring, they need to have the wealth of data necessary to process them quickly and accurately. Taking an open-minded and efficient approach to the type of data that they use will be a big part of this, and embracing publicly available online data will be a key element of the transition to a more modern and efficient approach to data-driven insurance.

The post Utilizing Online Data to Help Determine Corporate and Investment Risk appeared first on Grit Daily News.

Online retail isn’t a new frontier for millennials and Generation Z. These and future generations that are born into a digital era will be more than familiar with online marketplaces. However, thanks to restrictions on visiting brick-and-mortar stores, the unique circumstances presented to both retailers and consumers in 2020 has changed the landscape and opened new online markets.

Most notably, the research found an increase in consumers aged 65+ who do the majority of their shopping online, jumping from 15% a year ago to 39% today. A majority cited increased convenience as a leading factor in their shift online, with 69% including this in their top three reasons. Older customers historically have been reluctant to shop online. This shift in attitude highlights the changing retail landscape. This is encouraging news for retailers, but presents them with a new challenge to attract customers this Christmas and beyond.

Retailers must adapt and respond to consumers who are increasingly savvy when shopping online. Gone are the days when it took a long time to compare products and prices. There are now entire platforms that do the hard work for consumers and present them with the most attractive offers. Consumers are using these tools. The research found more than half of shoppers (55%) use comparison sites to find the most attractive deal.

How do online retailers compete in this new landscape?

From groceries to flights, winning the business of savvy consumers is key to success. Businesses must have a clear view in real-time of every move their competitors make. You need to be aware and respond quickly if a competitor selling a similar product drops their price by a couple of dollars to attract consumers who are using price comparison tools. Large retailers, travel providers, and many more sophistication online businesses have perfected this ability, thanks to large-scale online data collection. By regularly collecting online data providers have ‘near live’ view of the market and can adapt accordingly. 

This process isn’t limited to large businesses. Some small and medium sized businesses that will be dipping their toes into ecommerce for the first time need to be competitive in their domain. It is time for all retailers to future-proof processes and embrace the digital world now that consumers of all ages are showing a preference for online shopping. There can be no doubt that 2020 has caused the retail landscape to change, but this has presented a golden opportunity to retailers. To take this opportunity retailers must be guided by online data and the insights it provides. Data is being created by every action taken online. The faster retailers can collect, adapt, and respond to the latest trends, the more successful they will be.

The post Ecommerce: Consumer Shift to Online Retail Is Not Just A Passing Trend appeared first on Grit Daily News.