A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.
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People seem to forget that, 15-20 years ago, 95% of email was spam. It's gone down since then, but only because email isn't that important of a communication platform nowadays.
Bad actors attack with the tools they've got. If it's not protected, it's exploitable until it is.
lol, when you change the graph filter from HTML to JSON, it's 60% human.
Bots are, essentially, a virus. We are at the point now where they are killing the host. That is if they haven't already moved us to the point of no return.
A new internet isn't going to happen. We are stuck with the anonymous rage inducing or monetization system that took over because the systems of power let it.
I2P. Not perfect, but a good place to start.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I2P doesn't seem to fill the void. I think what is missing from that is the "norm" of the old internet. The internet was a playground with tons of hobby projects and experiments in its earlier days. I don't see TOR, I2P, etc, building the same playground because the novelty and ease of access can't be replicated.
Another community that has sprung up recently is Reticulum. Some of the relay chats rooms, websites and forums on there feel like the early internet and the emphasis on direct communication over radios could prevent bots. But it's definitely not ready as an internet replacement. Maybe in a few years...
I’m constantly getting bot checked these days because I do a lot of stuff when casually browsing to prevent being fingerprinted and tracked between sites. I wonder how often they just mark anyone not making them selves easy to identify as a bot.
I can't buy flights with SAS anymore because they flag me as a bot. Tried contacting customer support about it, which was a bot
AI customer service bots, which I know are soulless firewalls really more than helpers, are beyond frustrating.
There are probably not many of us though.
Dead Internet Fact
I wonder how Cloudflare estimates the increased rate of false positives they're getting after they made their bot detector even more oversensitive in recent weeks. It no longer likes my default javascript-enabled browser profile and I don't always bother to load another one when I get cloudflared, so >50% of visits from me are "bots".
Doesn't CloudFlare also have a vested interest in saying bot traffic has overtaken humans to encourage website owners to their services?
I wonder how much of it is people who just block cloudflare or don't use JavaScript.
Internet of Shit
Bots are humans, at least in the sense that bots are initiated by humans.
So when a human's tools misbehave, the human should be held accountable (except that's not feasible).
Seen in this light, the entire internet is literally now under attack.
Bots are not humans, but their creators should still be held accountable.
The question is if Iran's massive percent of Bots is because it has a lot of bots or if its humans just largely lack internet access.