What is TrustedSite?

TrustedSite is a bot in the academic research crawlers category, operated by TrustedSite (formerly McAfee SECURE).

Bot name
TrustedSite
Operator
TrustedSite (formerly McAfee SECURE)
Type
Bot
Respects robots.txt
Not confirmed
robots.txt user agent
TrustedSite
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
No

About TrustedSite

Crawl a customer website to perform basic validation

Research crawlers collect pages for university and non-profit studies of the web. Most are low volume and respect robots.txt. Block them there if you prefer not to take part.

TrustedSite user agent

TrustedSite identifies itself with this user agent string:

  • TrustedSite/1.0

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 TrustedSite in robots.txt

We have not confirmed whether TrustedSite follows robots.txt. Add a rule, then check your logs to see that it stopped. robots.txt is a plain text file at the root of your domain, such as https://example.com/robots.txt.

Block TrustedSite from the whole site

User-agent: TrustedSite
Disallow: /

Block TrustedSite from some folders

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

Allow TrustedSite only on some folders

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

Allow TrustedSite and block other crawlers

User-agent: TrustedSite
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: TrustedSite group, TrustedSite ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.
  • The user agent name is not case sensitive. We take TrustedSite from TrustedSite's user agent; check TrustedSite (formerly McAfee SECURE)'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. TrustedSite may not follow the rule. robots.txt is a request that nothing enforces, and we have not confirmed that TrustedSite follows it. Check your logs after adding a rule.
  2. The user agent could be fake. robots.txt matches the name a request claims. Anyone can send TrustedSite's user agent, and a scraper using it is not bound by TrustedSite (formerly McAfee SECURE)'s robots.txt policy. Only checking the source network tells a real TrustedSite from a fake one.

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

Who should care about TrustedSite

Publishers

Allow TrustedSite if it is a service you use, and keep its visits out of page views and ad requests either way.

Transfon Security for publishers

Media buyers and advertisers

TrustedSite is not a person. Exclude it from campaign and conversion data so reports reflect real visitors.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

Allow TrustedSite only if it works for your store, and keep it away from cart and checkout.

Transfon Security for e-commerce

SaaS and APIs

If TrustedSite is a service you use, allow it on the endpoints it needs and block it elsewhere.

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block TrustedSite with Transfon Security

robots.txt is a request, not an enforcement. Transfon Security shows TrustedSite 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 TrustedSite on your site

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

Frequently asked questions

What is TrustedSite?

TrustedSite is a bot in the academic research crawlers category, operated by TrustedSite (formerly McAfee SECURE). Crawl a customer website to perform basic validation

Does TrustedSite respect robots.txt?

We have not confirmed whether TrustedSite follows robots.txt. Add a robots.txt rule, then check your logs to see that it stopped, and block it by user agent if it did not.

How do I block TrustedSite?

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

Is robots.txt enough to block TrustedSite?

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

Should I block TrustedSite?

Research crawlers collect pages for university and non-profit studies of the web. Most are low volume and respect robots.txt. Block them there if you prefer not to take part.

Related bots

All academic research crawlers · 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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