Stephen Downes

All web sites that accept input need to protect themselves against bots and spam. That's just a sad reality. A variety of methods are at work behind the scenes, powered by companies like Aksimet, and these work well for low-value targets. Beyond that is the hated captcha system, a "widely loathed and unreliable system... that depends extensively on invasive tracking." A new proposal, Privacy Pass (eg. from Cloudflare, extensions), was published by the IETF. The idea is that a site grants a token to a visitor it deems reliable, and these tokens can be recognized at other sides. Sounds great, but as the authors of this report argue, it's a system ripe for abuse. "Our vision of an open Web means that restrictions on participation cannot be imposed lightly. "