A bot is a program that is designed to do an automated task. In the case of malicious LJ bots, they try to gain access to personal information by "friending" accounts (probably thousands at a time). Friending them back allows them access to information in your locked posts. Once a bot has access to your posts, it will spider through them to glean information. You might think there's nothing for them to see, but a lot of people put a lot of very personal information into their posts.
At the very least, a malicious bot will try to find valid email addresses to add to spamming lists. They won't be able to actually access your email. That's on a different system that friending them will not give access to.
There are plenty of legitimate bots, as well, but they don't ask to be added to your friends lists.
Here's a page that lists LJ's bot policies - as you can see there are a lot of automated tasks going on that we're not aware of. That's the danger of posting things to a system that's not your own. Your information is at the mercy of what they will and will not allow on their system.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-10-31 03:51 pm (UTC)A bot is a program that is designed to do an automated task. In the case of malicious LJ bots, they try to gain access to personal information by "friending" accounts (probably thousands at a time). Friending them back allows them access to information in your locked posts. Once a bot has access to your posts, it will spider through them to glean information. You might think there's nothing for them to see, but a lot of people put a lot of very personal information into their posts.
At the very least, a malicious bot will try to find valid email addresses to add to spamming lists. They won't be able to actually access your email. That's on a different system that friending them will not give access to.
There are plenty of legitimate bots, as well, but they don't ask to be added to your friends lists.
Here's a page that lists LJ's bot policies - as you can see there are a lot of automated tasks going on that we're not aware of. That's the danger of posting things to a system that's not your own. Your information is at the mercy of what they will and will not allow on their system.