Bright Data
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Data collection and proxy services |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Headquarters | Tel Aviv, |
Key people | Or Lenchner (CEO) |
Number of employees | 201-500[1] |
| Website | brightdata |
Bright Data (formerly Luminati Networks) is a global technology company that offers web data collection and proxy services.
History
[edit]The company was founded under the name Luminati Networks as a division of the Hola VPN company in 2014.[2] Luminati Networks was used to sell access to Hola's userbase as exit nodes, charging $20 per gigabyte for bandwidth that was coming from their free VPN users.[3] This was confirmed by Hola founder Ofer Vilenski, who stated that this was always part of the agreement with Hola's free users when signing up for the service.[3] After 8chan founder Fredrick Brennan emailed the company, Hola modified its FAQ to include a notice that users of Hola's free service are acting as exit nodes for paid users of Luminati's service.[3]
In 2017, Luminati Networks was sold separately from Hola to EMK Capital, a private investment fund from London, at a value of approximately 200 million dollars.[4][5][6] In March 2021, Luminati Networks was renamed to Bright Data.[7]
In May 2021, Bright Data founded an organization called The Bright Initiative with the aim of making data available at no cost to non-profits, organizations and research bodies. The organization serves more than 700 companies, including 300 academic institutions.[8][9]
In September 2022, the company acquired the Israeli start-up Market Beyond, which analyzes e-commerce data based on artificial intelligence.[10][11]
In June 2023, Bright Data joined the Amazon Web Services ISV Accelerate program.[12][13]
In October 2023, Bright Data, in collaboration with the Molly Rose Foundation charity, released a research report titled "Preventable yet Pervasive: The Prevalence and Characteristics of Harmful Content, Including Suicide and Self-Harm Material, on Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest." This study provided insights into the extent and nature of harmful content on these social media platforms.[14]
Litigation
[edit]In July 2018, Bright Data sued another proxy service provider, Oxylabs, for patent infringement. A jury initially awarded $7.5 million in damages to Bright Data, although another judge followed that ruling by ordering the companies to undergo mediation.[15]
In January 2023, Bright Data was sued by Meta Platforms for harvesting and selling data scraped from Facebook and Instagram. Meta previously hired Bright Data to scrape data from other websites.[16] In January 2024, Bright Data won the dispute with Meta, where a federal judge in San Francisco declared that the company did not breach Meta's terms of use by scraping data from Facebook and Instagram, consequently denying Meta's request for summary judgment on claims of contract breach.[17][18][19][20]
In July 2023, X Corp, formerly known as Twitter, sued Bright Data for scraping data from Twitter, violating its terms of service.[21][22] Bright Data countersued, asserting its commitment to making public data accessible, claiming legality in its web data collection practices.[23][24][25] In May 2024, a federal judge dismissed the suit, ruling that Bright Data did not violate X's terms of service or copyright by scraping publicly accessible data.[26] The judge emphasized that such scraping practices are generally legal and that restricting them could lead to information monopolies,[27] and highlighted that X's concerns were more about financial compensation than protecting user privacy.[28]
References
[edit]- ^ "Bright Data News, Hiring, Layoffs, Competitors, CEO, Fundraising Insights". RivalSense. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
- ^ אביגד, דורון (2023-01-07). "המנכ"ל שניהל בגיל 14 ומתנגד ללימודים אקדמיים ולישיבות ארוכות". Globes. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ a b c Osborne, Charlie (29 May 2015). "Hola: A free VPN with a side of botnet". ZDNet. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
- ^ רבט, הגר (2017-08-10). "EMK קונה חטיבה של Hola Networks בכ-200 מיליון דולר". כלכליסט - www.calcalist.co.il. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ "EMK buys stake in Luminati for nearly $200m". Globes. 2017-10-08. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ "EMK Capital Acquires a Majority Stake in Luminati". NOAH Advisors. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ Prosser, Chris (2021-03-25). "Luminati Networks is Now Bright Data - What Changes Rebranded as "Bright"?". Private Proxy Reviews. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ "Bright Data 2023 Impact Report Highlights the Use of Public Web Data for Public Good". Yahoo Finance. 2023-05-11. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ Spiro, James (2021-05-23). "Israel's Bright Data to help UK with its national data strategy". CTECH - www.calcalistech.com. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ "Bright Data to Launch Bright Insights, with the Acquisition of Top eCommerce Digital Analytics Provider Market Beyond". September 12, 2022. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ "Bright Data acquires eCommerce insights provider Market Beyond for tens of millions of dollars". ctech. 2022-09-12. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ "Bright Data Joins AWS ISV Accelerate Program, Adding Web-Data-Collection Capabilities to the AWS Cloud". CIO Influence. 2023-06-07. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ "Bright Data Joins AWS ISV Accelerate Program, Adding Web-Data-Collection Capabilities to the AWS Cloud". Yahoo Finance. 2023-06-07. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ Spotlight (2023-11-30). "The Research Brief: Why harmful social media content needs stronger regulation". The New Statesman. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ Athow, Desire (19 November 2021). "Judge orders mediation after jury orders Oxylabs to pay $7.5m in latest episode of proxy wars". TechRadar.
- ^ "Documents show Meta paid for data scraping despite years of denouncing it". Engadget. 2023-02-02. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ Gennaro, Michael (January 23, 2024). "Federal judge rules against Meta in data scraping case". Courthouse News Service. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ Perez, Sarah (2024-01-24). "Court rules in favor of a web scraper, Bright Data, which Meta had used and then sued". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ "Meta Fails to Beat Data Firm in Facebook, Instagram Scraping Row". Bloomberg Law. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ "Court rules against Meta in Bright Data scraping case". ctech. 2024-01-25. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ "Elon Musk's X Corp. Sues Israeli Company Over Data Scraping". news.bloomberglaw.com. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ Newman, Marissa (February 2, 2023). "Meta Was Scraping Sites for Years While Fighting the Practice". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ Newman, Marissa (June 5, 2023). "Bright Data Accused of Scraping Minors' Information From Instagram". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ Wrobel, Sharon (27 July 2023). "Musk's X Corp sues Israel's Bright Data for scraping data". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ "Israeli firm dismisses privacy concerns in data scraping controversy". www.israelhayom.com. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
- ^ Stempel, Jonathan (2024-05-10). "Musk's X Corp loses lawsuit against Israeli data-scraping company". Reuters.
- ^ Field, Lora Kolodny,Hayden (2024-05-10). "Elon Musk's X loses lawsuit against Bright Data over data scraping". CNBC. Retrieved 2024-05-16.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Musk's X Loses Suit Seeking to Stop Israeli Firm's Data Scraping". news.bloomberglaw.com. Retrieved 2024-05-16.