Fight Listing Theft

Director, Information Technology

While the Internet is a wonderful source of information and a fantastic marketing tool, it has many dangers. One of the biggest dangers to our industry is listing piracy or scraping.  Simply put, scraping is a method of acquiring data from of a Web site. Automated programs run constantly, with the purpose of taking data from Web sites.

Screen scrapers are very simplistic. They are not concerned about the integrity or completeness of the data. Their goal is to take enough data to give the impression that their Web site has legitimate access to the information. The consumer has no idea that the data is faulty and incomplete. Many REALTORS® have seen their listings on other sites that do not have the permission to post it. Tools are available, from the Center for REALTOR® Technology, to fight this practice. They are NoScrape and reCaptcha.

NoScrape “renders” your Web page. This is a technique widely used by financial institutions and ticketing agencies. It differentiates data from information. The program generates, or renders, an image that contains both data and graphics. Screen scrapers see your Web page as an image and cannot strip the listing data.

reCaptcha takes another approach. It identifies the party accessing your site as either a human or a computer program by generating questions only a human can answer correctly. We’ve all been to these types of Web pages. A distorted image is shown and you have to re-key the characters into a field before you are allowed access to the site.

Fighting listing theft requires a multi-tiered approach. Your strategy should include input on policy, legal and technical perspectives. The bottom line is you want to do everything possible to protect your listing data and ensure the consumer isn’t misled by incorrect or incomplete information.

Both of these programs are available for download on www.realtor.org, in the technology section.