Re:Launch HN: Axiom (YC W21) – No-code browser automation a....
by yaseer on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @09:05AM
(#26328412)
We aren't looking at robots.txt - but that's a great suggestion. It leads to a bigger point about bad actors.
Unfortunately, people can build bots to do all kinds of bad things - this is something we have seen, considered and taken some steps to mitigate.
Right now, we have a low level query, with follow-up manual inspection, to prevent bad actors. (Shout-out to our YC batchmates who alert us https://beta.useavenue.com/).
For example, we detected bots being used for harassment on social media and stamped it out.
It's possible for us to scale this up for similar 'bad use-cases' like the one you've identified.
Re:Launch HN: Axiom (YC W21) – No-code browser automation a....
by offtop5 on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @09:39AM
(#26328857)
Why couldn't this guy, or girl just program that directly in JavaScript instead of using this product. I don't see making browser automation easier as something which would enable bad people
Re:Launch HN: Axiom (YC W21) – No-code browser automation a....
by yaseer on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @09:51AM
(#26329034)
Certainly - we don't enable something to be done that couldn't be done before.
We just make bot-building accessible to more people. Ideally, that means more helpful bots, but it could result in a more bad bots too, if we're not mindful.
The reason I ask is that Joe Arbitrage could sign up for one paid premium account with a SaaS provider, then use that account and axiom.ai bots to provide the SaaS's services to a bunch of Joe Arbitrage customers at a higher price, i.e. customers who don't know about the original SaaS.
Some SaaS providers wouldn't mind and offer APIs to do the same, but others _would_ mind, so it would be nice if there's a way for them to say "Go away" to axiom.ai bots.