On the Internet, we can come across multiple factors that, in one way or another, affect our browsing. We have a large number of services and platforms available, and in order for them to work properly, there must sometimes be Internet bots. But what exactly are they? We can say that there are different types, as we will see. Most of them are positive, they are necessary for the operation of the network, but on other occasions, we will come across malicious Internet bots that can put our security and privacy at risk.

What are Internet Bots?

First of all, we are going to talk about what exactly these robots or Internet bots are. Basically, it is a computer program in charge of carrying out repetitive tasks. Sometimes the human being needs to perform jobs that consist of constantly filling out forms, looking for certain information, responding to similar messages. All this can take hours and hours of work. A computer robot does it in an automated way, according to the instructions given.

They are, therefore, tools that are very present in our day to day. They allow us to avoid having to perform tasks manually and constantly. In short, they serve to save work.

An Internet bot will always follow the steps for which it has been configured. Previously, you must give him a series of instructions to act according to the case you are in. It may happen that you have to view pages and detect certain broken links, for example. In this way, I would crawl those pages to find links to be corrected.

The tasks can be very varied. Therefore we can also come across many types of Internet bots. Some of them, as we have indicated, is not good for our security and privacy.

Types of Bots on the Internet

As we say, there are different types of bots on the network. Let’s see what the main ones are and what their function is.

Chat Bot

It is certainly a classic on the Internet. Surely on some occasions, we have entered a web page, and a message has appeared automatically welcoming us or asking us if we need anything.

When answering, they send us an automatic message as information. They can even answer questions from visitors. They are robots that are very present in web pages on the Internet.

Crawlers

In this case, we are dealing with computer robots whose mission is to collect a large amount of data. For example, they can collect information from other websites or APIs to unify them. They are also known as crawlers and are generally used to index content.

Spam Bots

If we go to the negative internet bots, one of them is the one in charge of sending spam. Basically, it aims to send mass advertising that can sometimes be deceptive or even become invasive.

Unfortunately, they are very present today in all kinds of platforms and operating systems. They are sometimes very annoying.

Responsible for Distributing Malware

But without leaving the malicious computer robots, there are also those whose mission is to send malware to the victims. They may collect information or be alert to our movements to send a malicious file with the aim of putting our privacy and security at risk.

Scrapers

Internet Bots type scrapers are designed to steal information. They can collect a wide variety of user data, images, emails, texts, etc. Our data is of great value online today, and many marketing companies are constantly looking for ways to obtain it and then use it to make a profit.

Computer Robots to Play

In this case, we are basically dealing with a computer program that has been configured so that we can play against it. For example, a bot with which to play a game of chess.

Social Media Bots

We can’t forget about social media bots. They are really very present on the Internet. They can pretend to be legitimate users, but in reality, it is a machine that only aims to show some type of information, deceive victims in some way, or send advertising over the network.

We can see this type of computer robots very frequently on social networks like Facebook or Twitter. Be careful since sometimes they have the mission of stealing information from users or even sending malware.

Conclusion

In Conclusion, these are some of the main types of bots that we can see on the Internet. As we can see, not all of them are good. Since we can come across some that are designed to steal information and compromise our security and privacy on the net. It is, therefore, vital that we always keep common sense in mind and that we do not make mistakes when browsing that may compromise us.

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