&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Perplexity denies Cloudflare accusation of secretly scraping restricted websites")
AI search startup Perplexity is facing strong criticism after Cloudflare, which is a web infrastructure company, published a blog post accusing it of bypassing site restrictions to collect web data.
This comes shortly after Perplexity launched its Comet browser, which focuses on agent-based internet browsing powered by AI.
In a blog post published by Cloudflare, the company claims that Perplexity has been scraping websites that requested not to be analysed by bots. This scraping reportedly continued even after site owners blocked access through standard rules and tools.
Perplexity accused of disguising its bot activity
Cloudflare conducted its own tests to investigate these claims. According to their blog, the company created new domains that explicitly requested not to be scraped. They then asked Perplexity AI questions about these domains. Surprisingly, Perplexity was still able to return information about the pages, despite access being denied.
Cloudflare said that Perplexity may be changing the "user agent" of its crawler. Which means that the bot pretends to be a normal web visitor, rather than an AI tool, allowing it to access sites that have blocked AI crawlers.
Trending Stories
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
National Handloom Day 2026: From Alia Bhatt to Samantha Ruth Prabhu; Actresses who celebrated India's textile heritage as brides
)
The Royals enter the Doctor Who universe: King Charles and Queen Camilla beam into Commonwealth Games in TARDIS
)
Unitree Robotics targets $9 billion valuation in landmark IPO backed by DeepSeek and Tencent
)
India names 27 sites in Arunachal Pradesh
)
Bharat Bhhagya Viddhaata OTT: When will Kangana Ranaut's film stream online?
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
How many soldiers operate one S-400 battery?
)
Shakib Al Hasan ready to return to Bangladesh—under one condition
)
‘Fake news’: MEA rejects report claiming India sought defence pact with Israel after Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey deal
)
Rockstar to unveil GTA 6 extended look ahead of November launch
)
Russia forms Ukrainian Volunteer Spetsnaz Brigade to fight Ukraine
)
Drug-resistant fungus that hides in hair and enters bloodstream reported in 23 US states
)
Technology transfer deal boosts India's defence manufacturing ambitions
)
Border row erupts in Europe after Ceuta crossings, Spain imposes border controls on Italy
)
Morale plummets on USS Abraham Lincoln: Are US sailors reaching a breaking point? | GRAVITAS
)
'Security can't be bought with Pakistan, Turkey deal': Iran tells Saudi Arabia
)
Baba Vanga's 2026 prophecy: 2 predictions 'already came true', 3 terrifying ones remain. Details inside
)
Colombia’s new president Abelardo de la Espriella vows to ‘defeat narco-terrorists’, signals hardline shift
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
New Friday OTT releases (August 7, 2026): Operation Safed Sagar, Vadhandhi, Main Vaapis Aaunga- 6 movies and TV shows on Netflix, Prime Video and more
)
Squadron Leader Bhawana Kanth scripts history as Indian Air Force gets its first woman ‘Top Gun’ pilot
)
RSS says Gen Z protests reflect genuine distress
)
Trump says Iranian school bombing photos could be AI-generated - 'I don’t think...'
)
IAF officer held for sharing sensitive information in 'honey trap' case, booked under Official Secrets Act
)
Stray Kids under scrutiny? Fans react to Grammy submission silence after BTS boycott
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
Why the Su-30MKI doesn't need external fuel tanks to fly vast distances
)
Jugal Hansraj reunites with Shekhar Kapur after 40 years for Masoom: The Next Generation
)
New speed limits, automatic challans: Big traffic change coming to Delhi-Meerut Expressway. All you need to know
)
India officially names 27 places in Arunachal to counter China's renaming claims
)
Trump calls White House ballroom ruling a 'national disgrace' as court says Congress approval needed
)
US sanctions Iran’s crypto network after Strait of Hormuz attacks, offers $15m bounty for intel on IRGC finance
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
Why the Su-30MKI is one of the heaviest fighters ever built
)
Uttarakhand young innovator builds India's own flying vehicle, conducts first test flight: WATCH
)
Chilling video shows students take cover as teen opens fire at Thai school
)
Reese Witherspoon's father hospitalised after poolside incident in Nashville: Report
“This unusual activity was observed across tens of thousands of domains and millions of requests per day,” as mentioned by Cloudflare. They added that it used machine learning and network signals to identify the scraping pattern.
Perplexity responds to the allegations
In response, Jesse Dwyer, who is a spokesperson for Perplexity, told TechCrunch that the blog post was more of a marketing attempt by Cloudflare rather than an objective report. Dwyer said, “The screenshots in the blog show that no content was accessed.” She also claimed that the crawler named in the post “isn’t even ours”. Perplexity has denied any wrongdoing.
The bigger debate: How AI gathers information
AI tools like Perplexity, Claude, and ChatGPT rely on vast amounts of web content to train and answer user queries. These tools often scan forums, articles, and blogs to improve performance.
This is done to improve the performance of the both and the agentic ai
However, concerns are growing around data transparency and the ethics of content scraping. Some AI companies, such as OpenAI and Anthropic, have started offering opt-out options for websites. There is now increasing pressure on the AI industry to adopt clear guidelines on data collection.
Cloudflare has taken a firm stance, stating that the current approach by some AI companies is “breaking the business model of the internet”. The company now aims to push back against unauthorised data scraping.
