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   GenAI bots could well be scraping your web apps, researchers warn   
      
   Date:   
   Thu, 03 Apr 2025 15:13:06 +0000   
      
   Description:   
   Data extracting bots are being used to train AI models, Barracuda warns.   
      
   FULL STORY   
      
   New research from Barracuda has identified gray bots, alongside good and bad   
   bots that crawl the web and extract data - and while the good bots, like SEO   
   and customer service bots look for information, bad bots are designed for   
   harmful activities like fraud, data stealing, and breaching accounts.    
      
   In the space between, there are gray bots, which Baraccuda explains are GenAI   
   scraper bots designed to extract serious amounts of data from websites, most   
   likely in order to train AI models, or to collect web content like news,   
   reviews, and travel offers.    
      
   These bots are blurring the boundaries of legitimate activity, the report   
   argues. Whilst they arent outright malicious, their approach can be   
   questionable and some are even highly aggressive.   
      
   Heightened activity    
      
   Detection software from Baraccuda found millions of requests received by web   
   applications from GenAI bots between December 2024 and February 2025, with    
   one tracked web application receiving 9.7 million scraper bot requests in    
   just 30 days.    
      
   These bots collect data and can remove it without permission, and can also   
   overwhelm web applications with traffic, disrupt operations, and take   
   copyright-protected data to train AI models, which may be in violation of the   
   owners rights.    
      
   There has been lots of pushback against practices like these, with creative   
   industries in the UK launching a Make it Fair campaign to protest against   
   their work being used by AI models to create photos, videos, stories, or    
   other content without permission or credit.    
      
   Data privacy risks also come with this level of scraping, as some sites carry   
   sensitive customer data - for instance those in healthcare or financial   
   services.    
      
   The bots can also obscure website analytics, making it very difficult for   
   organisations to assess and track genuine traffic or user behaviour, making   
   business decisions more difficult.   
      
   ======================================================================   
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/genai-bots-could-well-be-scraping-your-   
   web-apps-researchers-warn   
      
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