# Cloudflare begins evaluating verified bots against website preferences

_Published Friday, October 16, 2026 at 9:06 AM EDT · Infrastructure, Security · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![Cloudflare begins evaluating verified bots against website preferences — Primary](https://blog.cloudflare.com/_emdash/api/media/file/01M51ZPERWNWYTD7Z36YMY80A8.01M51ZPFH7VV8EHQTMPJG9FHZ4.png)

Cloudflare says it is using a new internal system to evaluate whether verified bots consistently respect website preferences. The system checks observed traffic against robots.txt instructions and measures whether bots slow down or pause after receiving HTTP 429 responses asking them to reduce requests.

Those observations feed an explainable trust band based on sustained behavior rather than isolated events. Cloudflare plans to publish scores on Radar and let customers choose trust thresholds for handling verified bot traffic. Those customer controls are planned; the system is currently used internally.

## Sources

- [The Cloudflare Blog](https://blog.cloudflare.com/verified-bots-accountability/)

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Canonical: https://techandbusiness.org/newswire/dQ4v4p7fCpQd5BVnKNjx2c
Published: 2026-10-16T13:06:20.966Z
Story chronology: 2026-10-16T13:00:00.000Z
Retrieved: 2026-10-16T17:01:10.705Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)