What is Proximic?

Proximic is a bot in the advertising and marketing bots category, operated by ComScore.

Bot name
Proximic
Operator
ComScore
Type
Bot
Respects robots.txt
Yes
robots.txt user agent
Proximic
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
No

About Proximic

The Proximic crawler visites websites serving ads on behalf of them or their partners to determine which ads best fit a given website's content.

Advertising bots review landing pages, check ad placements and classify pages for brand safety and contextual targeting. Blocking ad verification bots can stop your ads or your inventory from serving, so allow the ones your ad partners use.

Proximic user agent

Sample user agent strings sent by Proximic:

  • Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; proximic; +https://www.comscore.com/Web-Crawler)
  • Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; proximic; +http://www.proximic.com/info/spider.php)

Anyone can copy a user agent string. Transfon Security also checks where each request comes from, so a request that claims to be a known crawler but comes from the wrong network is treated as a fake, not as the real crawler.

How to block Proximic in robots.txt

Proximic follows robots.txt, so these rules stop it crawling the paths you choose. robots.txt is a plain text file at the root of your domain, such as https://example.com/robots.txt.

Block Proximic from the whole site

User-agent: Proximic
Disallow: /

Block Proximic from some folders

User-agent: Proximic
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /search

Allow Proximic only on some folders

User-agent: Proximic
Allow: /blog/
Disallow: /

Allow Proximic and block other crawlers

User-agent: Proximic
Allow: /

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Things to know

  • Each host needs its own file. Rules on www.example.com do not apply to shop.example.com.
  • A crawler obeys only the most specific group that names it. Once you add a User-agent: Proximic group, Proximic ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.
  • The user agent name is not case sensitive. We take Proximic from Proximic's user agent; check ComScore's own documentation if it publishes a different robots.txt name.
  • Crawlers cache robots.txt, so changes can take up to a day to apply. Disallow stops crawling but does not remove pages already collected or indexed.

Limits of robots.txt

  1. Proximic may not follow the rule. Proximic says it follows robots.txt, but nothing enforces that. Changes can take a day to apply, the operator can change its policy, and other crawlers from ComScore use different names and rules.
  2. The user agent could be fake. robots.txt matches the name a request claims. Anyone can send Proximic's user agent, and a scraper using it is not bound by ComScore's robots.txt policy. Only checking the source network tells a real Proximic from a fake one.

Treat robots.txt as a statement of your policy, and enforce it where requests arrive.

Who should care about Proximic

Publishers

Ad verification and contextual crawlers like Proximic can decide whether your pages get demand. Blocking the ones your partners use can lower fill rates.

Transfon Security for publishers

Media buyers and advertisers

Proximic checks pages for ad platforms. Its visits to landing pages are not users, so exclude them from conversion data.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

Ad platforms send crawlers like Proximic to check product landing pages. Keep it allowed so ads are not disapproved, and out of analytics.

Transfon Security for e-commerce

SaaS and APIs

Allow Proximic on landing pages linked from your ads, and keep it off the app.

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block Proximic with Transfon Security

robots.txt is a request, not an enforcement. Transfon Security shows Proximic by name in the Top Bots report, so you can see how often it visits and which pages it reads. Block or allow it with a User Agent rule, or slow it down with a rate limit decision rule.

Transfon Security

Control Proximic on your site

  • See every Proximic visit and the pages it reads
  • Spot bots that fake trusted crawler names
  • Block, allow or rate limit Proximic with one rule
  • Works with or without robots.txt support

Frequently asked questions

What is Proximic?

Proximic is a bot in the advertising and marketing bots category, operated by ComScore. The Proximic crawler visites websites serving ads on behalf of them or their partners to determine which ads best fit a given website's content.

Does Proximic respect robots.txt?

Yes. Proximic follows robots.txt, so a Disallow rule for the Proximic user agent stops it from crawling the paths you list.

How do I block Proximic?

Add "User-agent: Proximic" followed by "Disallow: /" to the robots.txt file at the root of your site. To enforce it, block requests whose user agent contains "compatible; proximic" at your WAF. In Transfon Security that is one User Agent block rule.

Is robots.txt enough to block Proximic?

No. robots.txt is voluntary, so Proximic may not follow it, and anyone can send Proximic's user agent, so a fake Proximic ignores your rule. Enforce the rule where requests arrive, at your WAF, and check the source network.

Should I block Proximic?

Advertising bots review landing pages, check ad placements and classify pages for brand safety and contextual targeting. Blocking ad verification bots can stop your ads or your inventory from serving, so allow the ones your ad partners use.

Related bots

All advertising and marketing bots · Full bot directory

See Which Bots Visit Your Site

Transfon Security identifies every bot in this directory in your traffic reports, flags fake search crawlers, and lets you allow, block or rate limit each bot.

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