Publicly available API’s are rarely open completely to the public; they always employ some method of security or tracking to either keep statistics or audit who is accessing them. Some of the methods often used to track or secure an API request are:
- API Key: who is making the request? This is often in the form of a key (similar to a product key) that is generated per user.
- Authentication: verify that the person accessing the API is who we think they are.
- Authorization: verify that they are allowed to access what they are trying to access.