5 Common Anti-Scraping Techniques And How To Combat Them
Web scraping is the process of extracting data from websites, including social media and e-commerce sites, usually with a software program. Web scraping can gather data from different sources to create data sets that can be used for analytics and research purposes.
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The process has become increasingly popular in recent years due to the vast data it can provide businesses with. Organizations can gain valuable insights by analyzing this data, such as discovering customer behavior and preferences or acquiring competitive intelligence. It is a relatively low-cost tool that enables quick and easy access to large amounts of data.
The information gathered through web scraping is usually public knowledge available for anyone to access, but there are ethical considerations to using such data. Some companies are against web scraping due to privacy and security concerns. They may be concerned that scrapers can access their confidential information, and websites may have Terms of Service or robots.txt files that disallow web scraping. Organizations must research whether they are allowed to scrape a website before doing so.
By implementing anti-scraping techniques, website owners have made their content harder to scrape. However, these techniques are not perfect and have exploitable flaws. Here are five of the most common and some tips on combating them.
Web Scraping and Popular Anti-scraping Measures
Web scraping APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are powerful tools used to extract data from publicly available information on the internet. Web scraping APIs allow users to access and collect data from websites without manually copying and pasting the information. These APIs can automate processes such as collecting price comparisons, gathering contact information, or tracking changes in website content. With web scraping APIs, businesses and individuals can quickly and easily access large amounts of data that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to obtain.
The rise of these technologies has led to many anti-scraping techniques to protect websites from unwanted data extraction.
CAPTCHAs
CAPTCHAs are a type of security measure used to differentiate between humans and automated computer programs. They present a challenge only humans can solve, such as identifying images or picking out text in a distorted image. Some websites use reCAPTCHAs that require users to click on certain images or checkboxes to prove they are human. This makes it difficult for bots to scrape websites since they cannot solve CAPTCHA or reCAPTCHA challenges.
Fortunately, there are several techniques that web scrapers can use to combat CAPTCHAs. These include using rotating proxies, sending empty captcha parameters, checking for values in the source code or cookies, and utilizing third-party anti-CAPTCHA services.
Artificial intelligence has the potential to make CAPTCHAs obsolete. Once AI is more developed, it may use machine learning systems trained on millions of images to solve CAPTCHAS. These machine learning systems could allow AI to recognize patterns and accurately identify text in distorted images. A computer science professor named Jason Polakis has already developed AI that can reliably solve some kinds of CAPTCHAs.
As AI technology continues to advance, it’s likely that web scrapers will eventually be able to bypass CAPTCHA puzzles with ease. However, this also means that CAPTCHAs will become more difficult. In the future, it will be increasingly important to keep up with the latest trends in order to stay ahead of the curve.
Rate limits
Rate limiting is another anti-scraping technique used to protect websites. Rate limits can prevent denial of service attacks and are often used with other anti-scraping techniques.
Rate limits can make scraping a website difficult by limiting the number of requests sent from an IP address within a given period. This often leads to slow scraping speeds and makes it more challenging for scrapers to acquire data quickly. Additionally, rate limits can sometimes block certain IP addresses from making any requests, effectively blocking the scraper from extracting data from the target website.
Proxies are commonly used to combat rate limiting. Proxies mask the IP address of the web scraper, allowing for a higher request throughput than would otherwise be possible. This can help bypass rate limiting on websites, as it gives the appearance that multiple requests are coming from different IP addresses. Paid proxies often offer an extensive rotating proxy network which can increase throughput even further and make it easier to avoid being blocked by rate limits. If struggling with rate limiting, proxies can be an effective workaround.
IP address reputation checks
An IP address reputation is a measure of its trustworthiness. It is based on the behavior associated with the address, such as whether it has been used to send spam or malicious traffic. A strong IP reputation indicates that the device associated with the address is a reliable source for internet communications and information, but a poor IP reputation means the device may be part of a botnet or controlled by spammers.
Websites can block traffic from IP addresses with poor reputations and use IP reputation to identify suspicious activity and take appropriate counteractions if applicable.
Web scrapers can use proxies to circumvent IP address reputation issues by masking the actual IP address. Proxies can also help web scrapers access geo-restricted content or scrape multiple sites at once without being detected.
Here at Scraping Robot, we handle proxy management for you. This makes it easier to scrape the information you need without worrying about IP address reputation or rate limiting.
Honeypots
Honeypots are decoy systems that are deployed alongside legitimate systems within a network. When attackers attempt to gain access to these honeypots, they are directed away from the legitimate targets and toward the honeypot, allowing security personnel to monitor and analyze their activities.
Honeypots can also trap malicious bots, allowing organizations to identify and block them before they can do any damage. Honeypots can help organizations protect their data from being scraped by malicious actors and ensure that their websites remain secure.
One of the most effective honeypots is hidden URLs or fake fields on forms that human users cannot see. A honeypot could place hidden URL links around the site that look like regular links but are visible only to web crawlers. If a web scraper tries to access the link, they will be redirected to a page set up by security personnel with a trap or honeypot.
Web scrapers can get around honeypots by using multiple IP addresses, which can make it difficult for honeypots to detect the scraping activity. They can also use proxies or VPNs to hide their identity and location or bots that mimic human behavior to bypass honeypot detection systems.
Login walls
A login wall is a page that requires users to create an account or login before they can access the website’s content. This type of page is often used to stop web scraping, as it prevents automated bots from accessing the content without authentication. Login walls are also used to protect sensitive data and personal information, as well as to collect user data for marketing purposes.
Login walls make it harder for web scrapers to get the information they need, but they do not make it impossible. By using web scraping techniques such as OAuth and cookies, web scrapers can work around the traditional authentication methods used by sites to access their content without having to log in manually or complete surveys every time.
With OAuth, users can be authenticated by a website using tokens. They can use those tokens with each request, allowing them to access multiple website pages without going through the login process again.
Cookies allow web scrapers to store login session details to access websites requiring users to sign in before viewing certain content.
How Scraping Robot Can Help Your Business Combat Anti-scraping Techniques
Although this post has covered just five of the most common anti-scraping techniques and how to combat them, many more are out there, and new techniques are constantly being developed. In today’s rapidly-evolving digital landscape, what works one week doesn’t necessarily work the next. That’s one reason why it is so important to have a dedicated solution to simplify the web scraping process and ensure that operations continue running smoothly, allowing you to focus on growing your business.
Scraping Robot is an automated web scraping service that can help your business combat anti-scraping techniques and stay ahead of the curve. Our platform allows you to avoid common security issues related to web scraping so that you can access data on a wide range of websites quickly and safely.
We provide all the tools you need to scrape effectively without getting lost in the details. For simplified scraping, sign up today.
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