> **For coding agents and LLMs:** This is one Social Fetch marketing page (markdown export). For API orientation start with [`/llms.txt`](https://www.socialfetch.dev/llms.txt); for auth and crawl rules use [`/agents.txt`](https://www.socialfetch.dev/agents.txt); for every operation use [`/llms-endpoints.txt`](https://www.socialfetch.dev/llms-endpoints.txt).

## This page

- **On-site (HTML):** [https://www.socialfetch.dev/answers/how-is-public-social-data-different-from-an-official-platform-api](https://www.socialfetch.dev/answers/how-is-public-social-data-different-from-an-official-platform-api)
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# How is public social data different from an official platform API?

Official APIs require the account owner to authorize your app and return owner-scoped data. Public data needs no authorization from the profile you're looking up.

Source: [What is public social data?](https://www.socialfetch.dev/glossary/public-social-data)

## Related questions

- [Is Social Fetch legal to use for scraping public social data?](https://www.socialfetch.dev/answers/is-social-fetch-legal-to-use-for-scraping-public-social-data)
