Half of all financial services organizations in the US and UK prefer managing web scraping practices internally, compared to just 11 percent that prefer to outsource the process completely, according to key findings from a research conducted by a firm.
Web scraping is the method to obtain large amounts of data from websites.
The survey found that completely outsourcing data collection is the least popular method while a hybrid option of combining internal web scraping practices and outsourcing was more popular (38 percent).
The findings demonstrate that web scraping still remains a complicated and intricate practice among organizations, which needs close oversight, particularly in heavily regulated industries such as the financial services sector.
Understanding that data must be treated sensitively, the finance industry takes careful measures to stay in line with regulations, suggested the findings from the new Oxylabs white paper, ‘Alternative Data Unlocks Key Decisions in the UK & US Finance Industries.’
Almost all surveyed companies (99 percent) have a data compliance function – be it internal, external or both.
Aleksandras Šulženko, product owner at Oxylabs said, “While a third-party web scraping solutions provider is the easier and cheaper option for organizations, it seems the majority prefer to look internally and will continue to do so until the challenges around web scraping are addressed.”