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Amazon Bots Cause Grief For Associate Web Sites

theodp writes "Amazon Associates and Web Services developers are crying foul over the hammering they're taking from ill-behaved bots that Amazon had subsidiary Alexa Internet dispatch to evaluate the 'quality and reliability' of their sites. Amazon fessed up and acknowledged problems exist, but points to recent Operating Agreement changes that not only give Amazon and any of its corporate affiliates the right to do so, but also to use unstated technical means to overcome any methods that are used to try to block or interfere with such crawling or monitoring. Interesting stance from the folks who called on the Senate to prosecute those who degrade the technical quality of service at web sites."

1 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Re:could be by Planesdragon · · Score: 1, Troll

    So I guess I am not very informative about my habits - which I think is my freedom to do. And if a site doesn't work that way, the site owners clearly indicate that they are not willing to accept me a s a visitor - which is their freedom.

    Your logic is wrong.

    The owners of a website, especially if they are not aware of your habits, are not rejecting ('not accepting') you as a visitor / customer.

    At the worst, they're not taking efforts to accomodate your nonstandard way of browsing the web. YOU were the one who chose to apply filters--hence, the active part in the exchange is you, not the website owner.