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Hello, please also consider VPN usage. Unlike Tor, we even pay for this service, because we take it so seriously. Despite using the most reputable VPN provider
by byuu 11y ago
Hello, please also consider VPN usage. Unlike Tor, we even pay for this service, because we take it so seriously.
Despite using the most reputable VPN provider I could find with a serious privacy policy; I've seen a steady increase in Captcha requests from CloudFlare to simply view read-only pages. And all I can think is that the Captcha page often requires the same amount of bandwidth as the page I was requesting in the first place.
The net effect is that it's not saving you any CPU usage or bandwidth (if anything, it's costing you more as we still request the actual page after the Captcha system runs), it's making customers like me abandon your customer's sites out of frustration, and it's eroding the last line of defense we have against invasive tracking.
I'm sympathetic to the problem you're trying to solve, but surely there must be a better way for simple GET requests.
This doesn't just affect people like me as a user. Having experienced this, I would be averse to deploying or recommending CloudFlare in its current state.
- jgrahamc 11y agoWhich VPN are you talking about?
- byuu 11y agoIt's happened to me with Astrill, ExpressVPN, and vpn.ac so far. Usually I can reconnect to get a new IP to avoid catpchas again, so it seems only certain IPs are being poisoned. And no doubt because they are doing things they shouldn't. Hence the sympathy part. If anything, it's been surprising to me to learn just how many sites are using CloudFlare ;) I don't have a site handy that's triggering it right this moment, but here's a somewhat recent screenshot I grabbed of the captcha wall hitting my VPN: http://i.imgur.com/OnvK05l.png http://i.imgur.com/OnvK05l.png ; I received this for simply trying to view a product page with an ordinary GET request. Ironically, I couldn't solve the captcha, despite being human >_<