Top 5 Anti-Scraping Measures You Need To Know

Data is the new gold, and the Web is the largest source of data on the planet. No wonder, extracting data from online pages has become the modern gold rush! But not everyone agrees with this idea, as they want to protect their data at all costs. That’s where anti-scraping comes in!

Remember, this is a cat-and-mouse game between web scrapers and those guarding online data. What works today mightn't work tomorrow, so staying ahead of the curve with content like this is crucial!

What’s Anti-Scraping? And Why Is It a Thing?

Anti-scraping is a set of defensive measures websites use to prevent bots from scraping their data. Think of it as a security system designed to prevent automated scripts from extracting content from web pages. Find out more in our webinar on bot protection!

Now, why does all this matter? 🤔

Like many things in life, the answer is simple: 💰 MONEY! 💰

Data is the most valuable asset on Earth. That’s why companies—even when they have valuable data publicly available on their sites—aren’t too keen on letting bots scoop it all up in bulk. You don't just give away money! 💸

Data is gold for companies, and scraping bots—aka “data miners” for a reason—must be kept in check. In short, anti-web scraping is a way of protecting digital gold! ⚔️

The 5 Most Important Anti-Scraping Measures

Time to explore the 5 most relevant anti-scraping measures you need to know to build unstoppable web scraping scripts. 🦸

For each anti-web scraping technique, we’ll also see some ninja-level tips on how to evade it like a pro. Get ready for some stealth!

IP Bans

Banning IPs is one of the most common ways servers have to halt scraping scripts. If a site decides to add your IP to the Death Note, all requests coming from it will be ignored. That's game over! 😵

Why do servers ban IPs? The decision to ban an IP mustn't be taken lightly… 😯

IP bans only happen when you don’t play by the rules, and you end up with one or more of these issues:

• Bad IP reputation: It’s not just a movie trope; your past can haunt you in real life too!
• Suspicious HTTP headers: Setting non-browser HTTP headers is just screaming “I’m a bot!” to the server.
• Ignoring rate limits: Respect the boundaries set by the server, or it mightn't respect you back.

How to Prevent IP Bans?

The simplest method to avoid an IP ban is by rotating your IP through a pool of proxy servers. These conceal your IPs by making requests on your behalf. If you're not familiar with that mechanism, check out our guide on how proxy servers work!

The best proxy provider in the market? Bright Data! 🥇

Tired of IP bans? Discover Bright Data’s proxy services!

WAFs

WAFs, short for Web Application Firewalls, are comprehensive security systems designed to monitor and filter incoming traffic to web applications. These anti-scraping solutions protect against a variety of threats, including bots!

WAFs like Cloudflare, Akamai, and CloudFront are armed with advanced algorithms and browser fingerprinting tools that can quickly spot patterns typical of automated scripts. Think rapid request rates or odd header info—these red flags give away your bot’s identity! 🚩

If a WAF flags your activity, you might face immediate IP bans or CAPTCHA challenges:

How to Elude a WAF?

Good luck with that… 😅

If a site is protected by a well-configured WAF, there’s not much you can do with traditional scraping tools. Sure, you can try some tricks—like using a headless browser with the Puppeteer Stealth plugin to mimic a regular browser—but that doesn't always get the job done.

What’s the real solution? A cloud scraping browser that integrates seamlessly with Puppeteer, Selenium, and Playwright, with access to a pool of 72 million proxy IPs, built-in CAPTCHA auto-solving capabilities, and unlimited scalability in the cloud. Its name? Scraping Browser API!

CAPTCHAs

CAPTCHA are challenges that are easy for humans to solve but tricky for bots to face. 🤖

At least, that’s how they’re designed—as I’m sure we’ve all felt like bots ourselves at least once, considering how complex they’ve become…

CAPTCHAs usually pop up after specific user interactions, like filling out forms, but they can also be deployed by WAFs if they suspect you’re a bot. No matter when they show up, they can easily derail your scraping campaign.

How to Solve CAPTCHAs?

As we’ve already covered, automating reCAPTCHA and other providers isn’t a walk in the park…

While tools like Puppeteer Extra and Playwright Stealth can help you avoid them altogether, that’s not always feasible. 😞

The only solution that consistently works in all scenarios is relying on a premium CAPTCHA-solving service, like Bright Data's CAPTCHA solver!

User Behavior Analysis

User behavior analysis (UBA) involves monitoring user interactions on a website to sniff out suspicious activities. UBA systems collect data as you navigate a site, detecting patterns that can expose you as a bot. 🤖

This is one of the most sophisticated anti-scraping techniques, and it can easily detect automated behavior.

How to Outsmart UBA Systems?

The key is to replicate human behavior! Implement randomized delays between requests, rotate user agents, and diversify your interaction patterns in headless browsers.

Honeypots

A honeypot trap is a clever security mechanism designed to detect, deflect, or study attackers and unauthorized users. In the realm of web scraping, this often boils down to solutions like invisible links that only automated bots will follow.

If your script stumbles into a honeypot trap 🍯, it can either be stopped immediately or studied like a guinea pig to gather data and strengthen security systems against it.

How to Avoid Honeypot Traps?

Well, there’s no foolproof solution. As a rule of thumb, if something looks too good to be true, it might just be a honeypot trap! ⚠️

In general, you should instruct your scraping script to behave cautiously and avoid bot-like actions, like clicking on visible links.

For more guidance, read our article on how to avoid getting caught in a honeypot trap!

How to Bypass Anti Web Scraping

Keep in mind that anti-scraping measures on a site aren’t always uniform across all web pages. Pretty brilliant, isn’t it? 🧠

After all, each page might require its own level of protection based on the data it contains…

That means there’s no one-size-fits-all trick for every page on a site. The real game changer? Using only the best scraping tools, such as Bright Data’s web scraping services!

See the video below to learn more about how the products offered by Bright Data help you dodge those pesky anti-bot measures:

Final Thoughts

Here you’ve got a handle on what anti-web scraping is, and the techniques it uses to thwart your scrapers from doing their job. Avoiding these protection measures is possible, but it’s not always an easy task!

Looking to build a fast, effective, and reliable web scraper? Try Bright Data! Join us in our quest to make the Internet a public domain accessible to everyone—even through automated bots. 🌐

Until next time, keep exploring the web with freedom, and watch out for those anti-scraping measures!