The challenge: Spending hours a day fighting scraper bots, with no way to keep up

OffenderWatch plays a critical role in public safety by helping law enforcement agencies manage and share sex offender registry data. Much of this data is published on public-facing websites so that families can make informed decisions, like avoiding homes located near offenders when choosing walking routes, schools, etc. But this transparency comes with a cost. Massive volumes of automated traffic, mostly from data scrapers, were overwhelming their systems and driving up bandwidth costs.

“We wanted that data to be out there to keep people safe,” explains Josh Bruner, Chief Revenue Officer at OffenderWatch. “But background screeners and data aggregators were constantly scraping it. We were essentially funding their operations.”

At the time, more than 100 million visits were recorded each day on the company’s endpoints, and there was no way that was all human traffic. Josh took matters into his own hands. He set up firewalls and custom rules to identify and limit unwanted traffic. But staying ahead of bots’ evolving tactics became a full-time job.

“I had to spend two to three hours a day managing rules, checking IP addresses, and adjusting filters,” he says. “It was extremely manual and very laborious. And even then, we knew we weren’t catching everything.”

That approach wasn’t sustainable. OffenderWatch needed a smarter way to protect its systems without slowing down its ability to serve law enforcement and the public.

The solution: Plug-and-play protection, no engineering required

Josh discovered DataDome while looking online. “I was searching for AI-based bot protection that was compatible with Cloudflare,” he recalls. “DataDome immediately caught my eye because I could install it instantly, without any technical assistance.”

As Chief Revenue Officer, he was juggling ambitious strategic goals with limited technical support. “I’m somewhat technical, but I’m not an engineer,” he says. “I couldn’t afford to take our developers away from customer service just to install a complicated tool.”

So he was delighted to find out that he could integrate DataDome himself, directly from his browser, and get it running in minutes, directly via Cloudlfare.

The speed of implementation and the immediate visibility DataDome provided into bot traffic allowed Joshua to walk into his next executive meeting with concrete data, not just a proposal. “I was able to say, ‘Here’s the traffic before, here’s what we’re seeing now, here’s what it’s saving us.’”

The board approved the budget almost immediately. “It was probably the fastest I’ve ever gotten sign-off on a new tool,” Josh says with a smile.

DataDome’s flexibility and fast time-to-value made it a natural choice for this dedicated team with a big mission. And thanks to the minimal day-to-day management required, Joshua could finally focus on long-term strategy rather than daily damage control.

The results: Slashed scraping, saved time, & more profit

Once DataDome was fully implemented, the drop in bot traffic was remarkable. OffenderWatch reduced bot traffic by over 90%, dropping from 80 million requests per day to as few as 2.5 million. With scraping traffic gone, the company can finally trust its analytics.

Furthermore, that reduction has translated into real savings, especially on bandwidth. Just as important, Joshua has regained the precious hours he used to spend daily managing bot detection and mitigation.

Although OffenderWatch has rarely needed assistance, the few interactions they had with DataDome’s team confirmed they were in good hands. “It may sound a bit cliché, but I appreciate the fact that you can set up DataDome and forget it. Whenever we have questions, the team is responsive, analyzes our traffic, and quickly makes recommendations,” he adds.

Even more importantly, once the noise was gone, OffenderWatch was able to unlock a whole new revenue stream by offering verified, structured data to companies that were previously scraping it.

“After stopping the bots, we could focus on the people behind them,” Joshua says. OffenderWatch launched a commercial API specifically designed for those who needed the data: background screeners, visitor management platforms, tenant screening services, etc. “Scraping is messy and error-prone. We offered them something cleaner, more reliable, and cost-effective,” Joshua explains. “Instead of fighting us, they are now our partners.”

Going forward, OffenderWatch plans to protect its new tools and APIs from bots with DataDome, including a mobile app. “We trust DataDome to protect sensitive data and help us scale securely,” says Joshua. 

Wondering if you’re vulnerable to massive scraping? Start with a free Vulnerability Scan to see where your exposure lies and what you could gain by stopping bad bots at the gate!