# DuckDuckBot

> DuckDuckBot crawls websites to supplement DuckDuckGo's privacy-focused search results, working alongside data from Bing and other sources.

Source: https://docs.centinelanalytica.com/crawlers/duckduckbot

## At a glance

- Operator: [DuckDuckGo](https://help.duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/duckduckbot/)
- Type: Search Engine
- RSL category: `search`

The [bot directory page for DuckDuckBot](https://www.centinelanalytica.com/bots/duckduckbot) has its robots.txt token and the steps to verify a request from it.

## How Centinel checks it

- **User agent**: The request calls itself this crawler. Anyone can send the same string.
- **Web bot auth**: The crawler signs its requests, and Centinel checks the signature against the operator key.
- **IP ranges**: The operator publishes the addresses it crawls from, and Centinel checks the client address against that list.

A request that passes one of these checks is DuckDuckBot itself. One that only matches the user agent is reported as unverified. The match tokens, verification domains, and address feeds are not published here.

## Allowing or blocking it

The [crawler object](https://docs.centinelanalytica.com/api/crawlers.md) in the `/validate` response sets `access_allowed` to `true` only for a verified source that your tenant allowlists. A [policy rule](https://docs.centinelanalytica.com/admin/policy.md) can allow or block this crawler by its category, `Search Engine`.

[Back to the crawler catalog](https://docs.centinelanalytica.com/concepts/crawler-catalog.md)

[Crawlers with a source check](https://docs.centinelanalytica.com/crawlers.md)