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sabreW4K3 ( sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al )  to TechnologyEnglish · 1 year ago

The Open-Source Software Saving the Internet From AI Bot Scrapers

www.404media.co

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  • cross-posted to:
  • opensource@programming.dev
  • opensource@lemmy.ml
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The Open-Source Software Saving the Internet From AI Bot Scrapers

www.404media.co

sabreW4K3 ( sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al )  to TechnologyEnglish · 1 year ago
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  • cross-posted to:
  • opensource@programming.dev
  • opensource@lemmy.ml
Anubis, which block AI scrapers from scraping websites to death, has been downloaded almost 200,000 times.
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  • coyotino [he/him] ( theangriestbird@beehaw.org ) 
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    1 year ago

    This snip at the end is so good:

    Iaso said she thinks AI companies follow her work, and that if they really want to stop her and Anubis they just need to distract her.

    “If you are working at an AI company, here’s how you can sabotage Anubis development as easily and quickly as possible,” she wrote on her site. “So first is quit your job, second is work for Square Enix, and third is make absolute banger stuff for Final Fantasy XIV. That’s how you can sabotage this the best.”

    • Geodad ( Geodad@beehaw.org ) 
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      9 months ago

      deleted by creator

  • who ( who@feddit.org ) 
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    1 year ago

    She told me she’s […] also thinking about a version that doesn’t require JavaScript, which some privacy-minded disable in their browsers.

    As someone who is keenly aware of the privacy and security problems that come with allowing web scripts, I hope she prioritizes this soon. It’s really disappointing to find sites that were formerly readable without javascript suddenly inaccessible since adopting Anubis. The more sites that do this, the more people are pushed toward enabling scripts by default, exposing them to a great many trackers and web exploits that would otherwise be blocked.

    • exu ( exu@feditown.com ) 
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      1 year ago

      There’s an option using some very new HTML tag, but it’s not the default.

      https://anubis.techaro.lol/docs/admin/configuration/challenges/metarefresh

      • who ( who@feddit.org ) 
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        1 year ago

        Interesting. Judging by that option’s name, it seems to refer to use of the HTML <meta> tag to refresh a page.

        https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Elements/meta/http-equiv

        Neither this tag nor using it for refresh is new at all. I don’t think I’ve seen it used to detect bots, though. I wonder what Anubis is doing here.

        • JohnEdwa ( JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz ) 
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          1 year ago

          It’s simply checking if the connection is from an actual browser, as a scraper pretending to be one won’t actually refresh the page as instructed. It’s going to buy some time, but like the rest of Anubis in general, it will only work until the scrapers get modified to work around it.

  • FundMECFS ( FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 
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    1 year ago

    This thing Anubis always flags me for some reason. I use mullvad and safari (ios) with some add and tracker blocking extensions.

    • simple ( simple@piefed.social ) 
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      1 year ago

      Do you have javascript or cookies disabled? That might stop you from getting past.

      • FundMECFS ( FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 
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        1 year ago

        nope

    • Photuris ( Photuris@lemmy.ml ) 
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      1 year ago

      deleted by creator

      • FundMECFS ( FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 
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        1 year ago

        I expect better from a popular FOSS tool being used by privacy aware people though.

        • Lime Buzz (fae/she) ( SweetCitrusBuzz@beehaw.org ) 
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          1 year ago

          Can you open an issue, or see if one is open already for this?

      • Powderhorn ( Powderhorn@beehaw.org ) 
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        1 year ago

        Agreed. Luckily, they don’t seem to have the full list of Mullvad IPs, so if I really want to read something, I just try another tunnel.

    • Appoxo ( Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) 
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      1 year ago

      I wonder why traffic from known VPN companies are under more scrutiny than traffic from domestic households…

  • leaky_shower_thought ( leaky_shower_thought@feddit.nl ) 
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    1 year ago

    i like this one better than cloudflare’s turnstile.

    cf blocks me all the time for the smallest reasons and i can’t seem to find their nag email.

    • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble ( fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) 
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      1 year ago

      I have no issues with Cloudflare, but Anubis always takes it sweet ass time to verify me. Like 30+ seconds just sitting there, but then eventually I get in.

      • Vanilla_PuddinFudge ( Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub ) 
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        1 year ago

        Windows XP ended support like 20 years ago if you were wondering if the Pentium 4 build you’re using was still viable.

  • Chris Remington ( remington@beehaw.org ) 
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    1 year ago

    Would you edit your post and add the following archive link to the body, please?

    https://archive.is/VcoE1

    • who ( who@feddit.org ) 
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      1 year ago

      Unfortunately, archive.is seems to have moved behind a big corporate CAPTCHA service, subjecting readers to having their reading habits (both the articles and the referring communities) tracked at a large scale.

      I suggest this archive link instead:

      https://web.archive.org/web/20250707135819/https://www.404media.co/the-open-source-software-saving-the-internet-from-ai-bot-scrapers/

      • Chris Remington ( remington@beehaw.org ) 
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        1 year ago

        Unfortunately, archive.is has moved behind Cloudflare, subjecting readers to having their reading habits (both the articles and the referring communities) tracked at a large scale.

        How do you know this?

        What about https://ghostarchive.org/?

        • who ( who@feddit.org ) 
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          1 year ago

          Sorry; I shouldn’t have written Cloudflare specifically. Their CAPTCHA page now contains scripts from Google, not Cloudflare. I have corrected my comment.

          How do you know this?

          Because a couple months ago, archive.is/archive.today started showing me CAPTCHA pages instead of the archived articles when I use Firefox with scripts disabled. The current page contains scripts hosted by Google, which I won’t enable, so I can’t read the archived articles.

          What about https://ghostarchive.org/?

          I haven’t used that site enough to have a consistent picture of what it’s doing. When I tried it a few minutes ago, it directed me to a CAPTCHA wall when trying to submit an article, but not when searching for an archived article. I’ll try to remember to look at it again periodically, to be able to answer this question in the future.

          • Chris Remington ( remington@beehaw.org ) 
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            1 year ago

            Thanks. I appreciate the info and effort.

    • sabreW4K3 ( sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al ) OP
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      1 year ago

      To be honest with you, I refuse on moral grounds. 404 are independent and do good work. You’ve already linked a pay wall bypass in the comments, if anyone would like to find it, it’s not hard to scroll.

      • Chris Remington ( remington@beehaw.org ) 
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        1 year ago

        OK. Fair enough.

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