ns8-data-services is a realtime API to get a user's EQ8 fraud score, geolocation, device, demographic, search and technology data based on an IP address, user agent and referrer.

An EQ8 score is a number from 0-1000 which indicates the likelihood that the user is a bot. The lower the score, the more likely the user is a bot. A score less than 100 means it is very likely the user is a bot.

We use various methods to determine the fraud score, see our methodology.

In addition, the API returns all the detectable information on the user, like the device, geolocation, etc. This data is aggregated and available for reporting for account holders.

The API uses a REST interface, so it can be used from any platform.

Free version

There is a free version available that is rate-limited, so it should not be used for realtime access. No access token is required for the free version.

Usage

Server side scoring in Node.js

var ns8ds = require('ns8-data-services');

//  Example - within an express route
app.get('/test', function (req, res) {

    var options = {
        accessToken: '',                    
        ip: req.ip,
        ua: req.headers['user-agent'],
        referrer: req.headers['referer'],
        url: req.hostname
    };

    ns8ds.score(options, function(err, result) {

        if (!err && result && result.score < 100)   //  a score less the 100 is very likely a bot
            res.render('botContent');
        else
            res.render('humanContent');
    });
});

See full documentation.

Installation

$ npm install ns8-data-services

Methods

score(options, [callback])

Scores the user and returns the result in the callback.

Arguments

• options An object containing the scoring parameters:
  • accessToken The access token for the call that you can get from a gator.io account. Leave this blank for the free version, which is rate limited.
  • ip The IP address of the user.
  • ua The user agent of the user.
  • referrer The user's referrer.
  • url The url of your site the user is on
  • timeout The timeout in milliseconds to wait for a response. Set this to a low value for a production website.
• callback(err, result)
  • err The error object has the following format:
    • code an HTTP status code from the REST call.
    • message the associated error message.
  • result The user score object.

Example result

{
    "score": 520,                       //  a score less than 100 indicates a very high likelyhood of a bot or an invalid user
    "offense": null,                    //  this identifies the primary reason a user has a low score (colocation, collusion, etc.)
    "organization": "Acme, Inc.",       //  the company, ISP, school or governmental agency of the user
    "searchInfo": {                     //  we detect over 200 search engines
      "group": "Bing",
      "name": "Bing",
      "keys": "bicycles"
    },
    "campaign": "BingAds",              //  the pay version aggregates on dozens of attributes, including campaign, source, publisher id,
                                        //  medium, channel, etc.

    "deviceType": "Mobile",             //  can also be desktop/laptop, tablet, console, TV and handheld.
    "platformVersion": "iOS 9.2",
    "platform": "iOS",
    "isUniversity": false,              //  whether the user is within a university's netblock
    "geolocation": {                    //  I.P. based geolocation for web users - this is 100% accurate to the country and
                                        //  roughly 85% accurate to the postal code level.
      "countryCode": "US",
      "countryName": "United States",
      "region": "CA",
      "city": "Laguna Niguel",
      "postalCode": "92677",
      "latitude": 33.5351,
      "longitude": -117.7052,
      "dmaCode": 803,                   //  a Designated Market Area (DMA) is a group of counties in the United States that are
                                        //  covered by a specific group of television stations.
      "areaCode": 949,
      "continentCode": "NA",
      "regionName": "California"
    },
    "demographics": {                   //  these are demographics for the postal code the user is in
      "medianHouseholdIncome": 112620,
      "averageHomeValue": 798918,
      "percentWhite": 77.56,
      "percentBlack": 1.44,
      "percentHispanic": 15.81,
      "percentAsian": 10.24,
      "percentFemale": 51.35,
      "percent0_14": 21.4,
      "percent15_24": 12.1,
      "percent25_34": 10,
      "percent35_44": 15.3,
      "percent45_54": 18.3,
      "percent55_64": 12.7,
      "percent65Over": 10.1
    },
    "browserVersion": "Safari",
    "browser": "Safari",
    "status": "This result was delayed intentionally as part of the free version.  Create an account at https://www.ns8.com/data-services/ for full speed access."
}

Endpoints

We are creating global endpoints for this API. The API is extremely fast, however we cannot control latency on the internet. To address this, we support colocation or replication to your cloud provider's site. Please contact us to set this up.

Sample use cases

• Ads Do not display ads to invalid users. Keep your reputation as a publisher intact.
• Content Optimization Tailor your content based on a user's geo, demo or device type.
• Offers Base offers on search terms, or user's demographic.
• Publisher Networks See which publishers have the best and worst traffic.
• Save bandwidth Why stream videos to bots?

License

The MIT License (MIT) Copyright (c) 2017 NS8 Inc, Phil Vizzaccaro

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Bugs

See https://github.com/ns8inc/ns8-data-services/issues.