Overview
Skype is a web scraper used for public web data collection, page extraction, content monitoring, and third-party crawler activity.
Its primary user-agent pattern is SkypeUriPreview; related patterns include Skype preview bot; a representative HTTP user-agent is Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) SkypeUriPreview Preview/0.5.
Skype is Unverified at the identity-evidence level. The listed identity remains useful for detection, but this record does not currently contain authoritative evidence sufficient to authenticate the identity claim.
Robots.txt behavior is not currently confirmed.
Skype should be reviewed against site policy, source evidence, crawl rate, and requested paths before a permanent allow or block rule is created.
Identity
- User-Agent
SkypeUriPreview- Aliases
- Skype preview bot
- HTTP Agent Examples
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) SkypeUriPreview Preview/0.5- Robots.txt Token
SkypeUriPreview- Identity Type
- Observed
- Evidence Method
- Treat `SkypeUriPreview` as an identity signal only. Confirm it with current operator documentation, cryptographic verification, forward-confirmed reverse DNS, source-network ownership, or other authoritative evidence before trusting the claimed identity.
Classification
- Type
- Scraper
- Kind
- Preview
- Family
- Skype
- Purpose
- scraping
Behavior and handling
- Common Use
- Skype is used for public web data collection, page extraction, content monitoring, and third-party crawler activity.
- Detection Notes
- Skype traffic is primarily detected by the `SkypeUriPreview` user-agent pattern; related patterns include `Skype preview bot`; a representative HTTP user-agent is `Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) SkypeUriPreview Preview/0.5`. Compare source IPs, reverse DNS, request paths, and crawl cadence before trusting the traffic.
- Respects robots.txt
- Unknown
- Spoofing Risk
- Skype has medium spoofing risk because user-agent strings can be copied; pair the match with DNS, IP, behavior, or operator evidence.
- Risk
- Neutral
- Recommended Handling
- Depends
Rules and controls
- Robots.txt Snippet
# robots.txt behavior is unconfirmed. Do not rely on this rule without verification.