Detroit-based Are You a Human was recently purchased by Virginia-based Distil Networks. The purchase is part of Distil’s efforts to expand its bot-detection capabilities. As part of the acquisition, the Human Tag will be re-branded as Distil Bot Discovery. Distil will open an office in Detroit and increase its presence in Motown. All 10 of Are You A Human’s employees are staying on, according to reports.
The firm’s website describes the Are You Human technology;
[Are You Human] collects hundreds of fingerprinting metrics and analyzes user’s device, software, and natural behavior to develop robust behavioral metrics on each page view in real-time … Only through an expert understanding of natural human characteristics and behavior is it possible to identify the 99% of non-human traffic caused by new and unique bots that fraud detection and verification systems can’t find
Distill Networks will add A You a Human’s real-time analysis technology and biometric information to its own suite of bot-detection products and use it to launch a free bot-discovery plugin for Google Analytics. Detecting bots is important because they can inflate website traffic numbers or present a security risk by searching for sensitive information.
The firm cited the Motor City as being:
… incredibly helpful and supportive to us, and we can’t imagine doing this anywhere else. Being able to build this company in Detroit has been hugely meaningful to all of us, and we’ll still be part of that awesome community going forward.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.