Yes, scraping public data in Mexico is generally permitted, but strict compliance with privacy and data protection laws is mandatory. Publicly accessible information does not inherently grant unrestricted use, as secondary processing must align with constitutional and statutory safeguards.
Key Regulations for Scraping Public Data in Mexico
- Constitutional Data Protection: Article 16 of the Mexican Constitution guarantees the right to informational self-determination, requiring that any data collection, including scraping, respects privacy and proportionality principles.
- Federal Law on Protection of Personal Data (LFPDPPP): Enforced by the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Personal Data Protection (INAI), this law mandates that even public data cannot be repurposed without a lawful basis, such as consent or legitimate interest.
- Transparency and Access to Public Information Law (LFTAIPG): Overseen by the Federal Institute for Access to Information and Data Protection (IFAI), this law permits scraping of government-held data but prohibits its use for discriminatory, commercial, or unauthorized profiling purposes.
Scraping must avoid:
- Excessive data aggregation that could re-identify individuals.
- Automated collection that circumvents technical protections (e.g., CAPTCHAs).
- Use of scraped data for purposes incompatible with its original public disclosure context.
Recent 2026 compliance shifts emphasize stricter enforcement of automated processing rules under INAI’s updated guidelines, particularly for AI-driven data extraction. Organizations must conduct Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) when scraping large datasets to mitigate risks of non-compliance. Failure to adhere may result in fines up to 32 million Mexican pesos or criminal liability under the Federal Penal Code.