Internet Inversion
We live in a time where powerful analytics engines can generate incredible predictive insights out of the vast amounts of consumer data that circulate over the internet on a daily basis. We also live in a time where automated “bot” programs are increasingly capable of acting just like human users, and exist online in greater numbers than ever.
When the algorithms that rule the internet start regarding bots as more “real” and important than actual humans, it’s as if the normal order of reality has been inverted. What is Internet Inversion Theory, and how does it relate to the challenges faced by today’s ecommerce merchants?
- What is Internet Inversion Theory?
- What are the Implications of Internet Inversion Theory?
- How Does Internet Inversion Theory Relate to Fraud and Chargebacks?
- Conclusion
A bot is a computer program that performs an automated task. You can use a scripting language to create a simple bot that repeats the same actions over and over, or program a complex bot with artificial intelligence that behaves unpredictably and fools casual observers into thinking that a real human is behind it.
In recent years, bots have been playing a larger role in our online lives. There are good bots that can engage us in talk therapy and walk us through customer service problems, and there are bad bots that participate in cyberattacks and try to get controversial topics trending on social media.
One of the reasons Elon Musk’s recent attempt to buy Twitter ran into difficulties was because of disagreements over how to quantify the number of Twitter users who were actually bots and not real people.
Public awareness of the dangers of bots might have peaked after the 2016 election, when many organizations and foreign governments were accused of using bots on social media to influence voters.
This was a high-profile, high-stakes example of what bots can potentially accomplish, but they influence us in smaller, less significant ways every day. The way bots browse the web, interact with marketing content, and parse our language has an effect on outcomes and design choices.
Bots—of both the benign and malicious sort—are highly active in many of the online processes utilized and monitored by ecommerce retailers. To make effective data-driven decisions about how to market your goods, burnish your reputation, and protect yourself from fraud, you have to understand how bot activity can alter your perceptions of customer behavior.
What is Internet Inversion Theory?
The origins of Internet Inversion Theory date back to 2013, when engineers at YouTube became concerned that fully half of their traffic was bots impersonating real users. They were worried that they were approaching a tipping point that would cause their internal traffic monitoring systems to start seeing the bots as real users, and vice versa. “The Inversion” was their name for this potential scenario.
In broader terms, Internet Inversion occurs any time analysis yields insights that are unreflective of reality due to the fact that the underlying data is lumping bot behavior and human behavior together.
Separating them isn’t easy, these days—bots that want to evade detection can simulate mouse clicks and other “analog” actions when they’re gathering web data, and can present legitimate-looking social media credentials and well-traveled tracking cookies.
Internet Inversion occurs not just because bots are so prevalent, but because internet data is so cheap and plentiful. Companies want to be able to use data analytics to justify their strategic choices, and the more accessible and affordable the data is, the less likely it has been screened for bots and other unreliable influences.
What are the Implications of Internet Inversion Theory?
The biggest problem with Internet Inversion is that it means you can’t trust your customer data. Let’s say you’re trying out landing pages for your website and trying to determine which format has the highest conversion rate. Your web traffic data may indicate that Landing Page A is vastly outperforming Landing Page B, but if that’s all due to bot traffic and Landing Page B is generating more real conversions, you might end up throwing out the wrong format.
Unfortunately, the entire reason many bots exist is to be misleading in this way. Businesses and influencers on social media purchase bot followers by the thousands to increase their reach and show off the size of their audience. Shady marketing companies use bots to “prove” that their campaigns are working and driving up traffic for their clients.
Worse yet, some bots are actively out to harm you. Bots can be used to support a number of fraudulent schemes, and many cybercriminals engage in phishing and account takeover schemes for the express purpose of establishing new platforms from which to launch botnet attacks.
How Does Internet Inversion Theory Relate to Fraud and Chargebacks?
Internet Inversion is particularly dangerous for merchants who participate in affiliate marketing programs. It’s easy for bots to masquerade as new users, create fake accounts, and claim your affiliate rewards without generating any actual new business leads for you.
Merchants should also keep Internet Inversion Theory in mind when strategizing to detect and prevent credit card fraud.
Fraud filters and other methods of protection that rely on AI, machine learning, and other forms of deep data analytics can be trained to detect bot-initiated purchases, which always carry a high risk of being fraudulent. Bots make it easy for fraudsters to engage in card testing, which is where they make multiple small transactions on a large number of stolen card numbers within a short timeframe. This allows them to determine which cards are still unblocked and can be used for larger purchases.
Conclusion
Instead of thinking of Internet Inversion as a single, singularity-like event that may happen in the not-too-distant future, merchants should look at it as something that happens any time the facile insights from low-quality data start to overtake experience, common sense, and well-researched facts.
Bots may be good at resembling humans under certain conditions, but if you start letting them guide your decisions you’ll soon find yourself losing touch with what your real customers want.
One of the most dangerous areas for Internet Inversion to occur is in the analytics that guide your fight against fraud, disputes, and chargebacks. If bots are messing up your transaction data and making it difficult to discern the signal from the noise, it might be time to reach out for some expert help.
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