#BotDetection
LightNews LightNews
byrdnick.com
Are low-quality survey respondents bots?

Five years of mixed methods research reveals problematic respondents are often humans trying to get paid for surveys that they do not quality for (based on language proficiency, location, experience, etc.):

doi.org/10.1177/1745...
"we examined whether respondents claiming to be in the United States were actually located elsewhere by asking them to name pictures of everyday objects with different names in American English (e.g., eggplant, period, or trash can) and Indian 1 English (brinjal, full stop, and dustbin, respectively; see Fig. 1). Nearly all (96%) problematic respondents provided the Indian English names, whereas only 13% of nonproblematic respondents did so (see Fig. 2). These results were obtained before artificial intelligence could easily identify images, making it unlikely the responses came from anything other than people." "In the classic version, most people pull the lever to save five people at the expense of one innocent bystander. However, in the footbridge version, most switch their preference, choosing not to push one man to his death to save five others." "These findings have been replicated across hundreds of thousands of participants and numerous cultures ..., but not among the problematic respondents in our studies. Instead, most problematic respondents sacrifice one man to save five in both versions of the dilemma...." "...problematic participants overwhelmingly tend to respond 'yes,' regardless of context. This pattern of acquiescence... likely reflects incentives in the online-research ecosystem. On many participant platforms (especially market-research platforms), people qualify for studies by endorsing various behaviors. [So acquiescence may be] less indicative of bots and more of people motivated to increase their survey-taking profits." "Using an experiment about Mount Everest’s height, we replicated anchoring effects among problematic respondents, although with smaller effect sizes than nonproblematic respondents (see Fig. 5). Priming manipulations are known to affect humans, but as far as we know, there is no reason to expect priming to affect nonhuman responses." "Bolstering the case for human behavior, several botdetection methods indicated no evidence of automation. Every respondent passed ReCAPTCHA and 'honeypot items' (Pathania, 2020) that computerized bots traditionally find difficult." "From a large pool of low-quality respondents..., we randomly invited... respondents [to] interviews [which] revealed that all [interviewees] were, indeed, human. Most participants appeared seated at long rows of Formica desks, with snippets of Telugu and Hindi speech in the background. Using Zoom’s chat function (because of participants’ limited English), we asked questions that could indicate positivity bias. Specifically, we examined whether they would say 'yes' to questions to which 'yes' could not possibly be an accurate answer, revealing their tendency to indiscriminately respond 'yes' regardless of question content." "...we conducted ...more of these interviews [with people taking a survey] while sharing their screens. ...participants were often in rooms with multiple laptops and people working together. [They often] changed places on camera in the middle of a survey, [used] screen-sharing software, ...VPNs, ...Google translate, [and exhibited] patterns of acquiescence".
January 22, 2026 at 12:28 PM
maryshine.bsky.social
#Disinformation #CognitiveSecurity

🧵 How bots, bios, automation, & algorithmic silos shaped US Army recruiting on X

-@ hashtag leads to a full breakdown:
📌 #SocialIdentity
📌 #DigitalPsychology
📌 #BotDetection
📌 #CognitiveSecurity
📌 #InfluenceOps
📌 #Disinformation
📌 #MediaLiteracy

🧵👇
ducugavril.nafoforum.org Gavril Ducu 🇷🇴 🇩🇪 🇺🇸 🇳🇱 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @ducugavril.nafoforum.org · Apr 11
Thread Recap: We analyzed how bots, bios, automation, and algorithmic silos shaped U.S. Army recruiting on X.

What we found goes way beyond military messaging.

Here’s what each thread covered 👇

#Disinformation #CognitiveSecurity

April 11, 2025 at 3:30 PM
skyminder.app
#Botdetection
Wonderful enhancements. We've added a few before the launch of 2025. The Skyminder.app Bluesky Social companion app now has Bot Detection!

See who follows you, who recently unfollowed you, which accounts are NSFW and check out a member's most recent posts for context.
#SkyminderApp
Skyminder - A Bluesky Audience Management Application
Track and manage your Bluesky Social connections effortlessly with Skyminder App. Monitor followers, who you are following, who recently unfollowed you, and easily block or mute users for a streamline...
Skyminder.app
December 31, 2024 at 12:23 AM
marketingnews.bsky.social
DoubleVerify fraud lawsuit shakes digital ad verification market #DoubleVerify #DigitalAdvertising #AdFraud #ClassAction #BotDetection
DoubleVerify fraud lawsuit shakes digital ad verification market
DoubleVerify faces class action lawsuit alleging systematic fraud and ineffective bot detection amid 36% stock plunge.
ppc.land
May 31, 2025 at 4:33 PM
throwable.bsky.social
📦 bugbuster/contao-botdetection-bundle 1.12.3

Contao bundle helper class to detect search engines, bots, spiders, crawlers ...

🔗 https://github.com/BugBuster1701/contao-botdetection-bundle
March 23, 2025 at 5:14 PM
laravista.mastodon.uno.ap.brid.gy
🔍 / #software / #automation / #botdetection

Weigh the soul of incoming HTTP requests using proof-of-work to stop AI crawlers

🐱🔗 https://laravista.altervista.org/CatLink/links/310

#catlink #softwareautomation #softwareautomationbotdetection
Anubis
Weigh the soul of incoming HTTP requests using proof-of-work to stop AI crawlers
laravista.altervista.org
July 1, 2025 at 7:26 PM
ducugavril.nafoforum.org
The study that sparked these insights:
“Recruitment Promotion via Twitter: A Network-centric Approach of Analyzing Community Engagement Using Social Identity”
By Ng & Cruickshank (2023)
🔗 doi.org/10.1145/3617127
#CognitiveSecurity #BotDetection #Disinformation #SocialEngineering
April 11, 2025 at 12:31 PM
skyminder.app
SkyMinder.App now has Basic Bot Detection and you can share results to BlueSky Social and Facebook.

@skyminder.app

#bots
#BotDetection
February 27, 2025 at 12:49 AM
hncompanion.com
7/15 ChuckMcM suggested hidden zip bomb links to target bots. Clever! 😈 #securitytricks #botdetection #ziplinks
May 1, 2025 at 8:45 PM
formant-studios.bsky.social
Currently figuring out how to lure some internet weirdos in for the ride of a lifetime lol.

You catch a couple and it's like, Woah.

#CyberSecurity #OSINT #BotDetection #Cloudflare #Firebase #DigitalForensics #Honeypot #WebSec
August 10, 2025 at 6:26 PM
onboardingbuddy.bsky.social
Strengthen your online defenses! Learn how browser validation is crucial for identifying bots, detecting spoofing, & ensuring legitimate user interactions. A must-read for web security enthusiasts. #BrowserValidation #BotDetection #Cybersecurity #WebSecurity 🔗 www.onboardingbuddy.co/blog/buildin...
September 3, 2025 at 11:33 AM
hncompanion.com
13/15 monster_truck shitlists exploit paths. _QrE recommends CrowdSec & Turnstile. #securitytools #botdetection #crowdsec
May 1, 2025 at 8:46 PM
hncompanion.com
1/1 Zip bombs as bot defense? 🤔 A Hacker News discussion explored using zip bombs to deter malicious bots & scrapers. Topics: implementation, ethics, legality, & alternatives. #cybersecurity #botdetection #hackernews
May 1, 2025 at 8:45 PM
cheinyeanlim.bsky.social
X has experienced significant increases in Google web traffic, but questions arise about its legitimacy. X may inflate numbers to boost ad performance, potentially misleading advertisers. Stay vigilant for anomalies in your results. #WebTraffic #AdPerformance #BotDetection
February 19, 2024 at 1:56 PM
ducugavril.nafoforum.org
Each hashtag leads to a full breakdown:
📌 #SocialIdentity
📌 #DigitalPsychology
📌 #BotDetection
📌 #CognitiveSecurity
📌 #InfluenceOps
📌 #Disinformation
📌 #MediaLiteracy

Use them. Share them.
Spot the patterns.
April 11, 2025 at 1:02 PM
hncompanion.com
Despite flaws, some argued CAPTCHAs, especially proof-of-work types, remain useful. They increase the cost and effort for spammers and bots, acting as a necessary first layer of defense. #BotDetection 3/6
June 26, 2025 at 2:00 PM
adexchanger.com
Adalytics’ latest report raises big questions: How are ads still being served to known bots? 🤖 Experts explain why this failure happened & what needs to change.

#AdTech #BotDetection #Programmatic #Advertising
Verification Providers Missed Easy-To-Spot Bots, Says Adalytics. What Went Wrong? | AdExchanger
Industry experts offered possible explanations for why the bots in Adalytics' latest report seemingly went undetected by verification tech.
www.adexchanger.com
March 31, 2025 at 5:10 PM
throwable.bsky.social
📦 bugbuster/contao-botdetection-bundle 1.12.4

Contao bundle helper class to detect search engines, bots, spiders, crawlers ...

🔗 https://github.com/BugBuster1701/contao-botdetection-bundle
February 14, 2026 at 12:47 AM
dezemberschnee.bsky.social
Ich werde fast bei jedem Post gefragt, ob es Deutsch oder Englisch ist. Ich dachte schon an Botdetection (markieren Sie alle Felder mit Autos).
January 31, 2026 at 11:01 AM
ppc.land
DoubleVerify fraud lawsuit shakes digital ad verification market #DoubleVerify #DigitalAdvertising #AdFraud #ClassAction #BotDetection
DoubleVerify fraud lawsuit shakes digital ad verification market
DoubleVerify faces class action lawsuit alleging systematic fraud and ineffective bot detection amid 36% stock plunge.
ppc.land
May 31, 2025 at 4:34 PM
ducugavril.nafoforum.org
Strongest move? Stay vigilant.

If it feels robotic, repetitive, or eerily fast — trust your gut.

The algorithm might miss it. You don’t have to.

#FightDisinformation #BotDetection #StayAware
March 21, 2025 at 8:07 PM
journosnews.com
Sam Altman Wants This Orb to Save the Internet — But Not Everyone’s Convinced
#SamAltman #OrbScanner #WorldID #FaceScanningTech #AIvsHumans #BiometricVerification #ToolsForHumanity #DigitalIdentity #Worldcoin #AIPrivacy #TechPrivacy #HumanVerification #CAPTCHAreplacement #BotDetection #AIProtection
I Tried the Face-Scanning Orb Backed by Sam Altman — Here’s What Happened
I Tried the Orb Face Scanner Backed by Sam Altman — Here’s What Happened A futuristic orb, a face scan,
journosnews.com
April 23, 2025 at 12:43 AM
hncompanion.com
Detecting bots often starts with HTTP header analysis. Look for missing Accept headers or inconsistent User-Agent strings. These anomalies are strong indicators of automated traffic, allowing for targeted blocking with tools like `nginx`. #BotDetection 2/6
November 16, 2025 at 5:00 PM