Hiding bot traffic, BCP, and fear of losing billions in revenue due to stolen content
The importance of bot traffic was clearly defined as a priority issue in the BCP standard. This is not an anomaly, as those who have become rich on free information would have us believe, but rather a key indicator of the state of the online ecosystem.
The Bot Consent Protocol Standard set the direction, and the industry responded surprisingly quickly after years of stagnation.
An industry shift that cannot be overlooked
It has begun!
When a field that has remained unchanged for a decade shifts in a matter of weeks, it is no coincidence.
It is a response.
A good example is Statcounter — an analytics company that has done nothing but make cosmetic changes for more than a quarter of a century. The platform was technologically anchored in the millennium and was considered one of the more static players in the web analytics industry, but until today it remained frozen in time, without ideas, without development, and without adapting to progress.
And then something happens that is hard to ignore: a new feature appears in their interface that did not exist until recently — ignore bot traffic.
“ignore bot traffic”
This is not an innovation or progress, but rather a defensive move by giants such as Amazon, Meta, and Google, who somehow had to react and start somewhere.
What this move really says
The ignore bot traffic feature simultaneously:
- acknowledges that bot traffic exists,
- acknowledges that they can identify it,
- acknowledges that it is important enough and very burdensome for foreign infrastructure,
- and that it provides someone with indispensable data, but then
- hides it from the main statistics.
This is conceptually the complete opposite of BCP, which treats bot traffic as something to be measured, not ignored.
Of course, Statcounter is not the main player here. It is just the most obvious symptom.
Why hiding bot traffic is a problem
Hiding does not solve the problem. Hiding only prolongs a situation in which:
- bot traffic remains invisible,
- profitable to some,
- unwanted by others,
- and invisible traffic remains unmeasured,
- unmeasured traffic remains unregulated,
- and unregulated traffic remains free food for some and a cost for others.
And free food in the form of stolen data and information means a billions of dollars for monopolists and information traders. They live off data flows, indexing, scanning, and automation.
As long as bot traffic remains in the dark, it also remains uncontrolled and free of charge.
This is the only reason why the industry’s response is defensive.
Not because there is no problem.
But because the problem benefits them.
Hiding is not the solution.
Hiding only perpetuates the problem.
And the problem means continued free food and billions for the giants and losses for creators.
Details on BCP implementation, results, and how BCP works in practice will be presented in another article.
FAQ
What is a Bot Consent Protocol Standard?
BCP is a proposed technical and legal standard for regulating automated access to websites. More about BCP >>
Why hiding bot traffic is bad?
Due to transparency and security aspects.
