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The web does not need gatekeepers: Cloudflare’s new “signed agents” pitch

(positiveblue.substack.com)

454 points positiveblue | 1 comments | 29 Aug 25 16:35 UTC | HN request time: 0.325s | source

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dlcarrier ◴[29 Aug 25 17:20 UTC] No.45066858[source]▶

>>45066258 (OP) #

I use uncommon web browsers that don't leak a lot of information. To Cloudflare, I am indistingushable from a bot.

Privacy cannot exist in an environment where the host gets to decide who access the web page. I'm okay with rate limiting or otherwise blocking activity that creates too much of a load, but trying to prevent automated access is impossible withou preventing access from real people.

replies(6): >>45066957 #>>45067243 #>>45067533 #>>45074395 #>>45074884 #>>45077330 #

1. gck1 ◴[30 Aug 25 13:18 UTC] No.45074395[source]▶

And god forbid you live in an authoritarian country and must use VPN to protect your freedom. Internet becomes captcha hell run by 2-3 companies.

I've had far fewer issues with my own bots that access cloudflare protected websites, than during my regular browsing with privacy respecting browsers and a VPN.

As a side note: I'm at least thankful Microsoft isn't behind web gatekeeping. Try and solve any microsoft captcha behind a VPN - its like writing a thesis, you gotta dedicate like 5 minutes, full attention.