DATA-MINING WEB BOTS
Data-mining web bots are programs that spread across the internet like viruses (except they don't generally replicate or do real damage). Some are harmless, like those that index web pages for search engines. Others are more malicious, like the "email link harvesters" — one of the major sources of spam. They are designed to search web pages for text strings matching the format of an email address, i.e., X@Y.Z. When they find one, they add it to a database that can be sold to spammers for potential contacts. If the email address is inserted using standard HTML, it is easily spotted and harvested. But if the email link is created using JavaScript, the web bots can't read it. Real clients (like you) with real brains can read the address, and still have the convenience of a one-click email link.
Sure, if someone is manually scanning for email addresses, and manually typing them into a file, I'm still vulnerable. But virtually all the data mining is done by bots these days. It's more efficient.
The following JavaScript will write an HTML email link when the page it's on loads into any (JavaScript enabled) browser. All you need to do is:
1. Download
the quick and convenient script as an ASCI text file
here: script.txt.
2. Copy and paste that script into the HTML code for the
page you want the email link to appear on, at the place
you want it to appear.
3. Change the value of the variable "email" to
the part of your email address BEFORE the @ sign (change
the one between the quotes).
4. Change the value of the variable "domain" to
the part of your email address AFTER the @ sign (change
the one between the quotes).
5. Adjust the font face, size, and color to your
preferences.
That's it! Save and load the page into your browser, and see how nice it works. For the curious hacker, exactly how this JavaScript works is explained below.
| SCRIPT YOU NEED TO ENTER | WHAT IT DOES | |
| ------------------------------- | ---------------- | |
| <script language="Javascript"> | activates the javascript. | |
| <!-- | start | |
| email = "email" | assigns the part of your email address before the "@" sign | |
domain = "domain" |
assigns the part of your email address after the "@" sign | |
| document.write("<font face='Arial' size=2><strong>"); | adjusts the face, size, emphasis of font | |
| document.write("<a href='mailto:" + email + "@" + domain + "'>"); | writes the HTML string to create email link | |
| document.write("<font color='6699CC'>"); | sets fixed color of displayed link | |
| document.write(email + "@" + domain); | writes the email link to the screen | |
| document.write("</a>"); | terminates text writing | |
| document.write("</font></strong>"); | terminates both assigned text characteristics | |
| //--> | end | |
| </script> | returns control to HTML |
We do what we can to beat the spam.
As long as I have your attention, here's another way to limit the data available to web bots and protect the privacy of your contacts. When you forward an email, or mass-send an original, use the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) option under the Send command. The details will depend on your particular email client, but there's always a way to do this. If you don't use BCC, the list of multiple email recipients in your email header could also be mined by web bots. Use BCC and help us stamp out spam.