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I absolutely agree. In fact, I think the problem is that like everything, there is an optimal point for efficiency, and crossing that line by making things "too easy" when it comes to data means too much power for one person to handle ethically. Absolute power may corrupt absolutely, but near absolutely power also corrupts quite nicely, too.

In short, we should have limits to amount of scraping possible, simply because humans can never be trusted past a certain point to remain ethical. After all, ethics at its first approximation is only a mechanism to improve societal cohesiveness, and it only works as long as the person doesn't have enough power to "do away" with society.




Would you make the same argument of the inverse: data gathering?


Yes, I would. There is a law of diminishing returns for all technical and scientific inquiry.




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