GDPR and web scraping: what's actually allowed in 2026
GDPR is the European data protection regulation. It applies to scraping personal data in or about EU residents. For B2B contact data (business email, name, role) "legitimate interest" is usually a valid lawful basis. For consumer personal data the bar is much higher.
What's "personal data" under GDPR
Any data that identifies a living individual. Business email like jane@company.com counts. Role-based email like info@company.com doesn't (it's not tied to an individual).
Lawful basis for B2B scraping
Most B2B leadgen relies on "legitimate interest" (GDPR Article 6(1)(f)). You must document the assessment, respect data subject rights (right to erasure, right to object), and only process what you actually need.
Practical compliance for Kavex users
Honour unsubscribes immediately. Keep retention windows short (12-24 months). Use Kavex's public /privacy delete endpoint to remove a specific person from your scraped data on request.
How Kavex compares to alternatives
We don't hide from comparisons. Each link below is an honest side-by-side breakdown.
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