[gtld-tech] [Regops] Search Engines Indexing RDAP Server Content

[John R Levine]

>> It also begs the question of the need for a BCP describing operational 
>> practices for server operators. There are ways for web servers to influence 
>> or restrict crawler behavior, but what's appropriate in this context?
>
> It would be good to keep in mind that respecting mechanisms such as 
> robots.txt is entirely voluntary on the crawler’s side.

Right -- the only reasonable assumption is that if casual users can find 
it with http, evil search engines (of which there are plenty) will too.

The search engines that most people use such as Google and Bing all obey 
robots.txt so it will keep info out of casual searches.  But I'd want to 
understand what the threat model is before inventing solutions.

Regards,
John Levine, johnl at taugh.com, Taughannock Networks, Trumansburg NY
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