4 ms·

Maybe it could also send automated petitions to the EU to undo cookie consent legislation, and reverse some of the enshitification.

antonok 2y ago
Ha, I'm not sure the EU is prepared to handle the deluge of petitions that would ensue. On a more serious note, this must be the first time we can quantitatively measure the impact of cookie consent legislation across the web, so maybe there's something to be explored there.
- pk-protect-ai 2y ago
  why don't you spam the companies who want your data instead? The sites can simply stop gathering your data, then they will not require to ask for consent ...
  - frail_figure 2y ago
    It’s the same comments on HN as always. They think EU setting up rules is somehow worse than companies breaking them. We see how the US is turning out without pesky EU restrictions :)
    - GardenLetter27 2y ago
      The US has 3x higher salaries, larger houses and a much higher quality of life? I work as a senior engineer in Europe and make barely $4k net per month... and that's considered a "good" salary!
      - Lutger 2y ago
        It has higher salaries for privileged people like senior engineers. Try making ends meet in a lower class job. And you have (almost) free and universal healthcare in Europa, good food available everywhere, drinking water that doesn't poison you, walkable cities, good public transport, somewhat decent police and a functioning legal system. The list goes on. Does this not impact your quality of life? Do you not care about these things? How can you have a higher quality of life as a society with higher murders, much lower life-expectancy, so many people in jail, in debt, etc.
        macinjosh 2y ago
        Touch grass. The US is a big place and is nothing like you seem to think it is. Europe on the other hand can't even manage to defend itself and relies on the US for their sheer existence.
        pona-a 2y ago
        Can you enlighten me of a state where none of parent's points apply? I'd be glad to be educated.
        Deutdeutsch 2y ago
        [dead]
      - Deutdeutsch 2y ago
        [dead]
  - whywhywhywhy 2y ago
    Because they have no reason to care about what you think or feel or they wouldn't be doing it in the first place. Cookie notices just gave them another weapon in the end.
K0balt 2y ago
I think there is real potential here, for smart browsing. Have the llm get the page, replace all the ads with kittens, find non-paywall versions if possible and needed, spoof fingerprint data, detect and highlight AI generated drivel, etc. The site would have no way of knowing that it wasn’t touching eyeballs. We might be able to rake back a bit of the web this way.
- antonok 2y ago
  You probably wouldn't want to run this in real-time on every site as it'll significantly increase the load on your browser, but as long as it's possible to generate adblock filter rules, the fixes can scale to a pretty large audience.
  - K0balt 2y ago
    I was thinking running it in my home lab server as a proxy, but yeah, scaling it to the browser would require some pretty strong hardware. Still, maybe in a couple of years it could be mainstream.
  - Tepix 2y ago
    Depends on your machine and on the LLM. Could be doable.
sebastiennight 2y ago
To me this take is like smokers complaining that the evil government is forcing the good tobacco companies to degrade the experience by adding pictures of cancer patients on cigarette packs.
- kortilla 2y ago
  Those don’t really work: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2782665 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...
  - shiftingleft 2y ago
    Do they help deter people from becoming smokers in the first place?
    - kortilla 2y ago
      Not sure if much serious research has been put into it. I would be suspicious of it deterring them because a lot of initial smoking happens in social situations where friends pass out individual cigarettes. By the time someone buys their own pack they are probably hooked. I suspect the obscene taxes blocking out young folks is one of the most effective strategies

antonok 2y ago

Ha, I'm not sure the EU is prepared to handle the deluge of petitions that would ensue. On a more serious note, this must be the first time we can quantitatively measure the impact of cookie consent legislation across the web, so maybe there's something to be explored there.

pk-protect-ai 2y ago
why don't you spam the companies who want your data instead? The sites can simply stop gathering your data, then they will not require to ask for consent ...
- frail_figure 2y ago
  It’s the same comments on HN as always. They think EU setting up rules is somehow worse than companies breaking them. We see how the US is turning out without pesky EU restrictions :)
  - GardenLetter27 2y ago
    The US has 3x higher salaries, larger houses and a much higher quality of life? I work as a senior engineer in Europe and make barely $4k net per month... and that's considered a "good" salary!
    - Lutger 2y ago
      It has higher salaries for privileged people like senior engineers. Try making ends meet in a lower class job. And you have (almost) free and universal healthcare in Europa, good food available everywhere, drinking water that doesn't poison you, walkable cities, good public transport, somewhat decent police and a functioning legal system. The list goes on. Does this not impact your quality of life? Do you not care about these things? How can you have a higher quality of life as a society with higher murders, much lower life-expectancy, so many people in jail, in debt, etc.
      - macinjosh 2y ago
        Touch grass. The US is a big place and is nothing like you seem to think it is. Europe on the other hand can't even manage to defend itself and relies on the US for their sheer existence.
        pona-a 2y ago
        Can you enlighten me of a state where none of parent's points apply? I'd be glad to be educated.
        Deutdeutsch 2y ago
        [dead]
    - Deutdeutsch 2y ago
      [dead]
- whywhywhywhy 2y ago
  Because they have no reason to care about what you think or feel or they wouldn't be doing it in the first place. Cookie notices just gave them another weapon in the end.

K0balt 2y ago

I think there is real potential here, for smart browsing. Have the llm get the page, replace all the ads with kittens, find non-paywall versions if possible and needed, spoof fingerprint data, detect and highlight AI generated drivel, etc. The site would have no way of knowing that it wasn’t touching eyeballs. We might be able to rake back a bit of the web this way.

antonok 2y ago
You probably wouldn't want to run this in real-time on every site as it'll significantly increase the load on your browser, but as long as it's possible to generate adblock filter rules, the fixes can scale to a pretty large audience.
- K0balt 2y ago
  I was thinking running it in my home lab server as a proxy, but yeah, scaling it to the browser would require some pretty strong hardware. Still, maybe in a couple of years it could be mainstream.
- Tepix 2y ago
  Depends on your machine and on the LLM. Could be doable.

sebastiennight 2y ago

To me this take is like smokers complaining that the evil government is forcing the good tobacco companies to degrade the experience by adding pictures of cancer patients on cigarette packs.

kortilla 2y ago
Those don’t really work: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2782665 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...
- shiftingleft 2y ago
  Do they help deter people from becoming smokers in the first place?
  - kortilla 2y ago
    Not sure if much serious research has been put into it. I would be suspicious of it deterring them because a lot of initial smoking happens in social situations where friends pass out individual cigarettes. By the time someone buys their own pack they are probably hooked. I suspect the obscene taxes blocking out young folks is one of the most effective strategies