darkpattern

I don't read BoingBoing very often so perhaps I missed this when it happened. Anyway, is it just me or is BoingBoing now paywalling all their articles? For instance, I only see part of this one. At the cutoff point I'm encouraged to go read the whole article on "BoingBoing Premium". I seem to recall one of their cofounders saying they were not going to paywall articles, but would have a paid tier where you wouldn't see ads.

#BoingBoing #paywall #media #DarkPattern

New uBlock Origin rule to clobber the intrusive "Copilot" button that recently appeared in Outlook web mail:

! Jul 25, 2025 https://outlook.office.com
outlook.office.com###CopilotCommandCenterButton

Note: there should be three (3) pound signs between ".com" and "CopilotCommandCenterButton". For some reason my fediverse server does not display all three.

#uBlock #AISpam #AI #GenerativeAI #Copilot #Microsoft #Outlook #DarkPattern

This post is not an invitation to criticize me for using a Microsoft product or to suggest an alternative.

I had a crash that took down Firefox, so when I restarted it it was the newest version (an update I'd installed, but hadn't restarted after).

I just went looking through the settings pages, which is a habit I've unfortunately had to get into because #Firefox and #Mozilla keep adding new anti-user fuckery in their continuing quest to drive users away from the only product they make that anyone gives two shits about.

And lo and behold, *this* is the new fuckery I found. Enabled by default. And it reinforces the need to go *check* for this bullshit every version update.

Firefox, if you had asked me how to cut my already diminishing trust in you to do the right thing by your users to near zero, I wouldn't have even dreamed this batshittery up. It's so much worse than I would have suggested. I have *all* the crap turned off - silently adding new crap and silently defaulting it to on is 1995-era Microsoft-screwing-the-users.

You feel you need to add this shit? Fine. But show me a dialog asking me whether I want it on or not when that version first starts. Don't turn it on behind my back and HOPE I DON'T NOTICE.

#fuckery #TwoShits #batshittery #abuse #DarkPattern #user #BehindYourBack #Enabled #EnabledByDefault #permission #AskPermission #sponsored #ads #privacy #version #update #bullshit

Once again blocked from using a website I've used regularly for years because of "unusual activity" from "your IP". After passing a captcha, no less.

Somehow bot-detecting algorithms have been degrading over time.

This is a troubling trend because people who aren't using the anointed access points of the internet struggle more and more to connect and interact. Large entities like CloudFlare choke off more and more avenues of access in the name of "security", enforcing digital checkpoints without any accountability to anyone.

#dev #tech #web #bot #DarkPattern #security #infosec #cybersecurity #checkpoint