About our crawlers

If you found this page in your server logs, you were visited by one of two crawlers. The User-Agent in your logs tells you which:

• neurondrift-prospector/0.1 (+https://neurondrift.co.uk/crawler; local business research) is run by Neuron Drift for itself. Read about it.
• lotus-prospector/0.1 (+https://neurondrift.co.uk/crawler; B2B supplier research) is run by Neuron Drift for Lotus Imports. Read about it.

To block both, add both to robots.txt:
User-agent: neurondrift-prospector
User-agent: lotus-prospector
Disallow: /

neurondrift-prospector

Who runs it

Neuron Drift (Chris Merry, a sole trader in Hastings, UK) runs it for its own business. Neuron Drift is the controller of the data it collects, and nobody else has access to it.

What it does

It finds local companies that might want help with their admin, and local accountants, bookkeepers and IT support firms that Neuron Drift could work with. The aim is to approach them one at a time about Neuron Drift's services, for example with a letter, a LinkedIn message or a one-to-one email. It never feeds a mailing list or an automated email campaign.

It covers Hastings, Bexhill, Rye, Battle, Tunbridge Wells, Eastbourne, Hailsham, and Brighton and Hove. It starts from the Companies House register and OpenStreetMap, then reads a business's own website to confirm what the business does and to find the contact details it publishes.

What it collects

• The business's name, company number and the kind of work it does.
• Its published business email address, business phone number, trading address and website.
• Where and when each detail was found, so any of it can be traced back to its source.

And how it behaves:

• It only looks at active limited companies and LLPs. Sole traders and partnerships are left out.
• It respects robots.txt, and it waits at least a second between requests to the same site.
• If your site blocks it, it accepts that and moves on. It doesn't try to get round bot protection.
• It looks for general business addresses such as info@. Free-mail addresses such as Gmail are set aside and not used.

How the details are used and how long they're kept is in the privacy notice.

How to opt out

Either of these works:

• Block it in robots.txt:
  User-agent: neurondrift-prospector
Disallow: /
• Email hello@neurondrift.co.uk with your business name or website address to object or to ask for your details to be deleted. Anything already collected about your business will be deleted, and your business will go on a do-not-contact list so it isn't collected or approached again.

lotus-prospector

This crawler identifies itself as lotus-prospector/0.1 (+https://neurondrift.co.uk/crawler; B2B supplier research). Here's what it is and how to stop it.

Who runs it

Neuron Drift (Chris Merry, Hastings, UK) runs it on behalf of Lotus Imports Ltd, a trade-only wholesaler of artificial flowers in Rye, East Sussex. Lotus Imports is the controller of the data it collects; Neuron Drift processes it for them.

What it does

It looks for UK businesses that might stock Lotus Imports' products, such as florists, garden centres, gift shops and event dressers. It reads a business's public website to confirm what the business does and to find its published business contact details.

• It only visits business websites, and only UK limited companies are in scope.
• It respects robots.txt, and it's rate limited so it never puts load on your site.
• If your site blocks it, it accepts that and moves on. It doesn't try to get round bot protection.
• It doesn't collect named individuals' personal email addresses. Free-mail addresses are set aside.

How to opt out

Either of these works:

• Block it in robots.txt:
  User-agent: lotus-prospector
Disallow: /
• Email hello@neurondrift.co.uk with your website address, and anything already collected about your business will be deleted and suppressed from future runs.