Robert Vamosi writes:
You have to run a business, and that requires understanding what interests your customers. But you also want to do the right thing and protect your customers’ privacy.
How do you walk that line when trying to mine information from the Web? Some data-mining shortcuts, such as scraping data off of social networking sites, are obvious options. But taking such measures can get you kicked off a site for violating its terms of service, or at the very least it will incur the wrath of your customers.
Read his suggestions on PCWorld.