Author(s)

Ji Jiaqi ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Corresponding Author

Ji Jiaqi

ABSTRACT

Automated web crawling plays an important role in search engines, digital platforms, financial analysis, and the development of large AI datasets, but it also raises increasing legal concerns as data becomes more valuable. This study offers the first empirical and comparative analysis of web-crawling regulation in China and Singapore by examining over 500 Chinese court decisions involving issues such as unauthorized access, large-scale data scraping, unfair competition, copyright disputes, and the bypassing of technical protection measures. Using methods including Pareto charts, correlation analysis, and network modeling, the study finds that Chinese courts usually take a flexible and market-oriented approach, balancing platform interests with the legitimacy of accessing public data. In contrast, Singapore applies a clearer and more access-focused legal framework based on the Computer Misuse Act, the Personal Data Protection Act, and a limited text-and-data-mining exception under copyright law, which sets strict boundaries while offering only narrow support for research. The comparison shows that China’s system is adaptable but fragmented, while Singapore’s framework is consistent but relatively rigid, and the study suggests that combining clarity in access rules with competition-based reasoning could help improve cross-border regulation of automated data collection in Asia.

KEYWORDS

Web Crawling, Unfair Competition, China Judgments Online, Empirical Legal Study, Data Rights, Compliance Frameworks

CITE THIS PAPER

Ji Jiaqi. A Comparative Study of Legal Risks and Compliance Frameworks for Web Crawling Technologies in China and Singapore: An Empirical and Doctrinal Analysis in the Age of AI. Science of Law Journal (2025) Vol. 4: 25-32. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/DOI: 10.23977/law.2025.040604.

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