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556 points campuscodi | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.015s | source
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amatecha ◴[] No.41867018[source]
I get blocked from websites with some regularity, running Firefox with strict privacy settings, "resist fingerprinting" etc. on OpenBSD. They just give a 403 Forbidden with no explanation, but it's only ever on sites fronted by CloudFlare. Good times. Seems legit.
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BiteCode_dev ◴[] No.41867245[source]
Cloudflare is a fantastic service with an unmatched value proposition, but it's unfortunately slowly killing web privacy, with 1000s paper cuts.

Another problem is "resist fingerprinting" prevents some canvas processing, and many websites like bluesky, linked in or substack uses canvas to handle image upload, so your images appear to be stripes of pixel.

Then you have mobile apps that just don't run if you don't have a google account, like chatgpt's native app.

I understand why people give up, trying to fight for your privacy is an uphill battle with no end in sight.

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KomoD ◴[] No.41867883[source]
> Then you have mobile apps that just don't run if you don't have a google account, like chatgpt's native app.

That's not true, I use ChatGPT's app on my phone without logging into a Google account.

You don't even need any kind of account at all to use it.

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BiteCode_dev ◴[] No.41867965[source]
On Android at least, even if you don't need to log in to your google account when connecting to chatgpt, the app won't work if your phone isn't signed in into google play, which doesn't work if your phone isn't linked to a google account.

An android phone asks you to link a google account when you use it for the first time. It takes a very dedicated user to refuse that, then to avoid logging in into the gmail, youtube or app store apps which will all also link your phone to your google account when you sign in.

But I do actively avoid this, I use Aurora, F-droid, K9 and NewPipeX, so no link to google.

But then no ChatGPT app. When I start it, I get hit with a logging page to the app store and it's game over.

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1. __MatrixMan__ ◴[] No.41869477[source]
I have a similar experience with the pager duty app. It loads up and then exits with "security problem detected by app" because I've made it more secure by isolating it from Google (a competitor). Workaround is to just control it via slack instead.
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2. BiteCode_dev ◴[] No.41869532[source]
Well you can use the web base chagpt so there is a workaround. Except it's worse a worse experience.