Bot & Scraping Policy

Optimal Shopping is a price-comparison service operated at optshopping.com. Our platform helps consumers compare grocery and retail prices across stores so they can make informed purchasing decisions.

To provide this service, we operate a web scraper that collects publicly available pricing data from retail websites. We describe exactly how it works below, and we welcome direct communication if you have any concerns.

Our automated data collection is designed to be a responsible, low-impact visitor. Specifically:

• Respects robots.txt. Before accessing any website, our scraper checks and honors the site's robots.txt file. We do not access paths that are disallowed for automated agents.
• Accesses only public data. We only collect pricing and product information that is freely accessible to any visitor without logging in, bypassing a paywall, or circumventing any access control.
• Rate-limited requests. We impose per-domain request rate limits and introduce deliberate pauses between requests to minimize server load. Our scraper is not designed for high-frequency or bulk crawling.
• No login or account access. We do not attempt to log in to retailer accounts, access member-only pricing, bypass geo-restrictions, or interact with checkout or payment systems.
• No data resale. Scraped pricing data is used exclusively to power the Optimal Shopping comparison service for consumers. We do not resell or license scraped data to third parties.

To be explicit, our scraper does not:

• Bypass CAPTCHA challenges, login walls, or authentication systems.
• Access or store any personal customer data from retailer platforms.
• Interact with shopping carts, checkout flows, or any transactional systems.
• Scrape at rates designed to degrade service performance.
• Ignore Crawl-delay directives or other crawling guidelines set in robots.txt.
• Reproduce or republish full-page content — only structured pricing and product data is collected.

We understand that not every retailer may want their site accessed by automated tools, even responsible ones. Here are your options:

• Use robots.txt. Update your robots.txt file to disallow automated access to paths you wish to protect. We check and honor robots.txt directives before crawling any page.
• Email us directly. If you have questions, concerns, or a specific request — such as removal of certain data or an opt-out from crawling entirely — please contact us at hello@optshopping.com. We will respond within 5 business days and work with you in good faith to resolve any issues.

Our data collection is limited to publicly available information and is conducted for the purpose of price comparison — a use recognized under fair-use principles in many jurisdictions. We act in good faith and in compliance with applicable law. We do not use scraped data in any way that would compete directly with retailers or reproduce their websites.

Nothing in this policy constitutes legal advice. If you have a formal legal concern, please contact us at hello@optshopping.com and we will engage with you promptly.

We may update this policy as our technical practices evolve. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated effective date.