Long before "agentic AI," we had the idea that software was your agent on the internet.
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When you connect to a server, it demands that your device send this "attestation" before it handles your request. If your device won't provide this data, or if the server doesn't like (or recognize) your device and its details, it can refuse to deal with you. And because the attestation is prepared by a TPM or a secure enclave that you can't modify or override, you don't get to decide which facts about your device it's allowed to see.
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Practically speaking, this means that remote attestation lets a server refuse to deal with you until you turn off your ad-blocker and your tracker-blocker. It means that the server can discriminate against users who block auto-play sound and video, who block pop-ups, who put the tab in the background when it's playing a mandatory pre-roll ad.
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Practically speaking, this means that remote attestation lets a server refuse to deal with you until you turn off your ad-blocker and your tracker-blocker. It means that the server can discriminate against users who block auto-play sound and video, who block pop-ups, who put the tab in the background when it's playing a mandatory pre-roll ad.
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WEI was especially disturbing in light of Google's efforts to kill ad-blockers and privacy blockers through updates to Chrome, an effort that continues to this day:
https://protonprivacy.substack.com/p/google-is-finally-killing-ublock
These blockers are an important part of the dynamic between web publishers and their users. In the real world, when you get an offer, you can make a *counter-offer*.
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WEI was especially disturbing in light of Google's efforts to kill ad-blockers and privacy blockers through updates to Chrome, an effort that continues to this day:
https://protonprivacy.substack.com/p/google-is-finally-killing-ublock
These blockers are an important part of the dynamic between web publishers and their users. In the real world, when you get an offer, you can make a *counter-offer*.
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That's all an ad-blocker is: a way for users to respond to a server whose opening bid is, "How about you give me all your data and let me take over your computer in exchange for showing you this page?" with "How about 'Nah?'"
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/07/adblocking-how-about-nah
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That's all an ad-blocker is: a way for users to respond to a server whose opening bid is, "How about you give me all your data and let me take over your computer in exchange for showing you this page?" with "How about 'Nah?'"
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/07/adblocking-how-about-nah
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We didn't get rid of pop-up ads by making them illegal, or by boycotting advertisers who used them. We got rid of pop-up ads when web users installed pop-up blockers, which made pop-up ads pointless. Take away our ability to block obnoxious digital content and you *guarantee* that we will be flooded with it.
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We didn't get rid of pop-up ads by making them illegal, or by boycotting advertisers who used them. We got rid of pop-up ads when web users installed pop-up blockers, which made pop-up ads pointless. Take away our ability to block obnoxious digital content and you *guarantee* that we will be flooded with it.
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These kinds of modifications aren't just used to block ads - they're also key to accessibility. People who have photosensitive epilepsy or who (like me) suffer from low-contrast vision problems use add-ons to reformat pages so that we can safely and legibly access them.
WEI's creators said they were only trying to put the web on a level playing field with apps, which routinely rat you out to the companies you connect to.
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These kinds of modifications aren't just used to block ads - they're also key to accessibility. People who have photosensitive epilepsy or who (like me) suffer from low-contrast vision problems use add-ons to reformat pages so that we can safely and legibly access them.
WEI's creators said they were only trying to put the web on a level playing field with apps, which routinely rat you out to the companies you connect to.
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Apps are a source of bottomless enshittification, not least because (unlike the web), they enjoy special, dangerous legal protections that make it *very* legally risky to modify them:
https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/31/unsatisfying-answers/#systemic-problems
WEI wasn't an effort to level the playing field between apps and the web - it was *a race to the bottom*, an attempt to make the web as enshittogenic as the app hellscape.
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Apps are a source of bottomless enshittification, not least because (unlike the web), they enjoy special, dangerous legal protections that make it *very* legally risky to modify them:
https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/31/unsatisfying-answers/#systemic-problems
WEI wasn't an effort to level the playing field between apps and the web - it was *a race to the bottom*, an attempt to make the web as enshittogenic as the app hellscape.
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Public outrage to WEI killed the project, but Google's commitment to augmenting its illegal commercial lockdown efforts with *technical* lockdowns never ended. Now, Google has rolled out an experimental "reCAPTCHA Mobile Verification" that uses an app, your camera, and your device's TPM or secure enclave to produce an attestation about your Android device:
https://support.google.com/recaptcha/answer/16609652
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Public outrage to WEI killed the project, but Google's commitment to augmenting its illegal commercial lockdown efforts with *technical* lockdowns never ended. Now, Google has rolled out an experimental "reCAPTCHA Mobile Verification" that uses an app, your camera, and your device's TPM or secure enclave to produce an attestation about your Android device:
https://support.google.com/recaptcha/answer/16609652
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This will make it much easier for the apps and other services you interact with to block your device if you run an Android alternative, or if you install a mod that overrides the actions of Google's stock Android:
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This will make it much easier for the apps and other services you interact with to block your device if you run an Android alternative, or if you install a mod that overrides the actions of Google's stock Android:
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This is a terrible idea - it's every bit as bad as WEI was. In an age in which Big Tech is ever-more tied to authoritarian governments, redesigning our devices to tell strangers things we don't want them to know isn't just shortsighted, it's inexcusable.
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This is a terrible idea - it's every bit as bad as WEI was. In an age in which Big Tech is ever-more tied to authoritarian governments, redesigning our devices to tell strangers things we don't want them to know isn't just shortsighted, it's inexcusable.
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@pluralistic Google unfortunately has the resources to do more than one of these at a time—they're also part of the attribution cartel, a project with Meta and Apple to drive ad revenue to lower-cost misinfo and slop that they, not independent publishers, can control
When "old Google" applied commodification to replace Digital and Sun servers with cheap generic PCs, it was a good approach. But applying it to news and creative works on the web is a big risk https://blog.zgp.org/facebook-slop-the-future-of-ad-supported-media/
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J jwcph@helvede.net shared this topic
