Bots and bot networks (botnets) have become a real problem on the Internet, and not just because they spam comment sections with offers for work-from-home opportunities. Bots can be used in phishing attacks and other nefarious online activities that are all designed to steal your personal data.

For everyday web surfers and social media users, this is a problem, but for web developers and designers, it’s an even bigger issue. Thankfully, there are some simple ways both types of Internet users can minimize the effect of bots. Below are some steps you can take to put an end to synthetic “friends” on social media:

Institute Verification Protocols

Customer data verification is the process of verifying whether an entity online is human or not. One example of customer data verification may be the use of picture puzzles that must be solved before a purchase can be made or a comment can be posted on a social media site.

While these protocols can cut down on the number of bots interacting with a network, they can also be time-consuming and place barriers between human users and content. As such, try to create data verification protocols that are as unobtrusive as possible. If you are looking for a customer data verification service, visit this website.

Maintain Awareness

You can also simply practice general awareness on social media to avoid interacting with bots. Have you received a friend request from a user you don’t know? Look more into things. Does a comment on a news story make little sense or have nothing to do with the story? Ignore it.

You can also utilize block features on social media to wall off bots, but this method typically only works for the specific account causing a problem. Remember that botnets aren’t being operated by a human, so they don’t care that you’ve blocked one account – there are much more waiting. Blocking one account only means that you won’t see the activity of that particular bot, but there could be hundreds or thousands more connected to the same network that will take its place, leading to the need for more blocking.

Read a similar article about selfie verification here at this page.