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556 points campuscodi | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | 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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pjc50 ◴[] No.41869163[source]
The privacy battle has to be at the legal layer. GDPR is far from perfect (bureaucratic and unclear with weak enforcement), but it's a step in the right direction.

In an adversarial environment, especially with both AI scrapers and AI posters, websites have to be able to identify and ban persistent abusers. Which unfortunately implies having some kind of identification of everybody.

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1. wbl ◴[] No.41870438[source]
You notice that Analogue Devices puts their (incredibly useful) information up for free. That's because they make money other ways. Ad supported content farm Internet had a nice run but we will get on without it.