Automated browsers are widely used to study the web at scale. Their premise is that they measure what regular browsers would encounter on the web. In practice, deviations due to detection of automation have been found. To what extent automated browsers can be improved to reduce such deviations has so far not been investigated in detail. In this paper, we investigate this for a specific web automation framework: OpenWPM, a popular research framework specifically designed to study web privacy. We analyse (1) detectability of OpenWPM, (2) resilience of OpenWPM's data recording, and (3) prevalence of OpenWPM detection.

Automated browsers (web bots) are an invaluable tool for studying the web. However, research has shown that web bots can be distinguished from regular browsers and that they may be served different content as a consequence. This undermines their utility as a measurement tool. So far, three methods have been used to detect web bots: browser fingerprint, order of site traversal, and aspects of page interaction.