Internet is no longer accessible?

Posted by cute_boi 11 hours ago

Counter36Comment22OpenOriginal

- There are tons of CAPTCHAs, and many of them are impossible to solve even with real chrome and no adblock extension. - Every website is asking for 2FA, and I get logged out every time. - MFA codes sent to my phone do not seem to work properly. - Registering a new Google account requires a phone number, and I also need to install app to prove i am not a bot. - Websites are asking me to rotate my head and grant microphone access. - Website blocks copy paste, so you have to manually type everything .... - Banking application will force you to update even if it isn't security related. - Everyone assumes you are bot.

Comments

Comment by acdha 18 minutes ago

> There are tons of CAPTCHAs, and many of them are impossible to solve even with real chrome and no adblock extension

Do you have any other extensions installed or use a VPN? This is highly abnormal compared to most users’ experience but not uncommon if you’re using an IP range which is also a source of malicious traffic.

The underlying problem is that “everyone assumes you are a bot” because every site operator has seen a huge increase in bot activity over the last few years. The AI companies ignore previously industry norms about traffic and do things like use residential IP ranges to originate their traffic (one way “free” VPNs and certain browser extensions make money), which means the amount of traffic most sites see has considerably more than doubled while bringing in no more revenue, and abusive activity is way up, too, because it’s cheap to point LLMs at forms to spam or try to exploit vulnerabilities.

Comment by al_borland 30 minutes ago

The other day I had to disable content blockers to login to Hilton’s site. I figured this out on my own after support sent me 5 password reset links and told me I had to fill out the whole form manually and do it on my phone instead of on the laptop I was sitting at. No matter what I did, I’d get a generic error, until I turned off content blockers. It makes me wonder what they are doing behind the scenes.

Comment by gregdaniels421 10 hours ago

It is part of what seems like a loosely coordinated effort to get verified platforms to be standard. Like device attestation so we can be more easily surveilled.

One odd thing with cloudflare is most sites are fine, and I click the box, but for some reason I go to some sites and they claim I have been blocked for bot like activity, which seems weird since it should be the same filter from the same provider.

Comment by trickypr 10 hours ago

Cloudflare isn’t just as simple as “bot” or “not a bot”. They give customers categories of how likely a request is to be automated (or a number for some enterprise plans)[1] and the customer decides what happens to your request (nothing, challenge, block, run a worker, etc).

[1]: https://developers.cloudflare.com/bots/concepts/bot-score/#b...

Comment by ericmay 11 hours ago

> Banking application will force you to update even if it isn't security related.

This is fine. Not sure how that’s related to the rest of your post.

But for the rest of your post I agree with what you wrote. If a website is even vaguely annoying I just stop visiting. It seems like product managers forgot that friction is an issue. I can’t even access my ISP’s own website and get blocked by Cloudflare.

Comment by jruohonen 10 hours ago

> Cloudflare

Recently I noticed that many have broken their RSS feeds too by putting the feeds behind this CDN too.

Comment by cyanclouds 38 minutes ago

We need something new fast.

Shake off all these brands and overly confident predators everywhere.

I’d love a reset. Better if there’s a technical step to keep mainstream out.

Comment by jdlyga 9 hours ago

The internet is no longer open. It's behind a series of apps. It's honestly more like AOL than the World Wide Web

Comment by shaunpud 2 hours ago

So frustrating actually finding a site with an RSS feed, only to find that it's behind one of these "protections", waste of time.

Comment by benoau 11 hours ago

I worry about what would happen if CloudFlare decided I was an adversary, a massive amount of the internet would become completely inaccessible if I couldn't get past their annoying gateway!

Comment by dlcarrier 9 hours ago

It's an even bigger issue for servers than clients, and CloudFlare's CEO understands how much power they have, and is also a bit concerned about that: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/17/cloudflare-ceo-says-removing...

Comment by Markoff 1 hour ago

VPN

Comment by al_borland 29 minutes ago

I use Mullvad from time to time, a ton of sites block me when it’s active.

Comment by y0eswddl 41 minutes ago

makes you more likely to get flagged, not less

Comment by JKCalhoun 10 hours ago

I'm increasingly okay with that.

Like mom turning off the TV because I should be out running around.

Comment by benoau 10 hours ago

It's not always frivolous stuff, like Upwork puts CloudFlare over searching and applying for work.

Comment by BearBest 5 hours ago

Indeed, major platforms are becoming more and more closed, and many platforms have begun to not provide or delete website functions, allowing users to download apps before using them. As for security-related platforms, I will only turn on those protection capabilities, such as banks, and other websites are not suitable!

Comment by vivzkestrel 10 hours ago

- step 1: modify cookie laws to target browsers https://nednex.com/en/the-internets-biggest-annoyance-why-co...

Comment by rrgok 7 hours ago

Step 1: cookies disabled by default.

Step 2: make it illegal to show ads without consent. Disabled by default.

Comment by soco 5 hours ago

And how really required are cookies for every webpage? I rewrote a friend's webpage from Wordpress to a static one, looks and acts exactly the same but needs no cookies and no banner. Because I've thrown out also the Google analytics - they're not selling anything so who cares (and if they will care, I'll add Simple Analytics).

Comment by 6 hours ago

Comment by squigz 9 hours ago

The only thing I run into in this list are CAPTCHAs and they're not that bad.

No, the Internet is not that broken; you just have to leave the Top 10 sites

Comment by JohnFen 46 minutes ago

CAPTCHAs increasingly prevent me from using websites that I've been using for years (none of them are in the top 10). I consider them that bad because they're locking me out of an ever-increasing portion of the web.

Comment by Oliveaniss 11 hours ago

[flagged]

Comment by 10 hours ago