Are your ZenRows requests failing? You might be trying to scrape restricted websites or engaging in prohibited activities. Read on to understand the guidelines.

ZenRows prevents access to certain websites, including but not limited to:

  • Financial institutions
  • Governmental websites
  • Payment processors
  • Visa applications

Additionally, certain behaviors on permissible sites can result in account suspension. Be aware of these to use our service without disruptions.

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Understanding Access Restrictions

We provide flexible products, but it’s essential to understand the limitations set primarily for legal or ethical reasons.

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Restricted Websites Categories

  1. Banks: Websites of banking institutions.
  2. Credit Card Processors/Payment Gateways: This encompasses VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, Stripe, and similar payment platforms.
  3. Visas, eVisas, and Permits Websites: Platforms related to visa application or issuance.
  4. Governmental Websites: Mostly, those with .gov domain extensions.

We may also block other sites based on legal or ethical concerns. If you believe a site is blocked in error, or there’s a legitimate reason for accessing content from a restricted site, please contact us. We welcome feedback and will review your appeal.

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Encountering Restrictions - What to Expect

If you target a restricted site, ZenRows API will return the following error:

  • HTTP Status Code: 400 Bad Request
  • Response Body:
{
  "code": "REQS001",
  "detail": "Requests to this URL are forbidden. Contact support if this may be a problem, or try again with a different target URL.",
  "instance": "/v1",
  "status": 400,
  "title": "Requests to this domain are forbidden (REQS001)",
  "type": "https://docs.zenrows.com/api-error-codes#REQS001"
}

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User Behavior Guidelines

Certain behaviors can lead to account suspension due to ethical, legal, or operational reasons:

  1. Brute Forcing Login Forms: Prohibited due to security concerns.
  2. Heavy Traffic Burden: Overloading sites disrupts their operation. Respect the robots.txt file and avoid aggressive scraping.
  3. Scraping Copyrighted Content: Without permissions, this is legally contentious.
  4. Extracting Private Personal Information: Against GDPR and other privacy laws.
  5. Misrepresentation: Tactics like spoofing user-agents or using proxies unethically are discouraged.

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Recommendations and Best Practices

  1. Handle Errors Gracefully: Build error-handling into your systems to manage potential restrictions seamlessly. If you get an HTTP 400 status code, do not retry your request to prevent being permanently blocked.
  2. Reach Out: Our support team is always ready to help, clarify, and listen.

We aim for a balance between powerful web scraping and ethical web behavior. By respecting these guidelines, we can create a sustainable and beneficial web scraping ecosystem. For any queries or clarifications, our support team is here to assist.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)