As always, I am worried to see Cloudflare and Google Chrome -- two of the internet's biggest/worst monopolies -- working so closely together like this. Cloudflare is already undergoing enshittification, like banning all automation by default that hasn't undergone privacy-invasive certification procedures (they recently started calling disallowed bots "AI Training", but that doesn't change anything -- you still have to be on a whitelist in order to be allowed). I have no doubt that in the near future, they will release some kind of ID verification and then the vast majority of the internet is simply done.
That's not my point. Cloudflare is blocking all unregistered automation as "AI Training" by default. My guess is we will see almost no one changing that default, as opposed to the inverse where only some sites will be forced to enable the blocks. Opt-out is a very bad model for things like this because it heavily hurts users (especially assistive users) while most websites won't have a strong enough opinion to even consider it.
I don't think we will see Cloudflare enabling an "age assurance" requirement by default. I feel like I could trust them slightly more than a site operator, depending on how it's performed, but I also feel like it would be very easy for them to do much, much worse than any site operator, due to the inherent power of being a GAA. (Global Active Adversary, to those not familiar)
I think it is the point. Bots have become the enemy. Most websites will have a strong opinion first time they look at the weblogs and realize how much of their capacity and money is being used for... something other than what they wanted it to be used for. Bots are no longer a rounding error. And yes, there are certainly innocent victims in the roadkill.
I do not support this argument at all. Just because I choose Cloudflare does not mean I choose that default. It doesn't even mean I choose the existing defaults. I'm getting tired of people saying you could've/should've just chosen something else -- that would change everything, not only the things you have problems with.
It's the same issue I have with laptops that aren't MacBooks -- you cannot always just fix an issue with a MacBook by choosing something else. Often, that something else lacks everything good about the MacBook and you'll have even more problems.
Also, not everyone has implicit trust in everyone else's future direction. No outsider could have known they would do this! The only reason you could've chosen them for it is if you already agreed with this default. It's entirely fair to push back against defaults you disagree with. Especially when stuff like this suddenly makes a majority of the internet way worse for users.
Note that I don't disagree with blocking bots in general, especially when you need it to prevent your site from crashing, etc. I disagree with making everyone have to opt out if they don't want to block bots like that. That will lead to most operators not doing anything, and most sites blocking bots by default, even when they never actually would have otherwise!
LoganDark · · focus · HN ↗
stubish · · focus · HN ↗
LoganDark · · focus · HN ↗
I don't think we will see Cloudflare enabling an "age assurance" requirement by default. I feel like I could trust them slightly more than a site operator, depending on how it's performed, but I also feel like it would be very easy for them to do much, much worse than any site operator, due to the inherent power of being a GAA. (Global Active Adversary, to those not familiar)
stubish · · focus · HN ↗
sneak · · focus · HN ↗
LoganDark · · focus · HN ↗
sneak · · focus · HN ↗
LoganDark · · focus · HN ↗
It's the same issue I have with laptops that aren't MacBooks -- you cannot always just fix an issue with a MacBook by choosing something else. Often, that something else lacks everything good about the MacBook and you'll have even more problems.
Also, not everyone has implicit trust in everyone else's future direction. No outsider could have known they would do this! The only reason you could've chosen them for it is if you already agreed with this default. It's entirely fair to push back against defaults you disagree with. Especially when stuff like this suddenly makes a majority of the internet way worse for users.
Note that I don't disagree with blocking bots in general, especially when you need it to prevent your site from crashing, etc. I disagree with making everyone have to opt out if they don't want to block bots like that. That will lead to most operators not doing anything, and most sites blocking bots by default, even when they never actually would have otherwise!