Most mass scrapers, on the other hand, simply grab the raw HTML underneath. ShieldFont exploits this difference through an automated process called OpenType glyph substitution.
That said, because the whole defense rests on scrapers reading code rather than screens, taking a screenshot of a shielded page and running OCR on the image can still recover the real words.
Screen readers used by blind readers also work from the code, so they read the decoys aloud. ShieldFont ships with a beta feature that provides those readers with the real text instead.
A terrible idea that will hinder everyone and not serve it’s original purpose in a flash.
- anything that parse the page is broken, this includes screen reader, but also indexing, searching, and people that replace fonts locally for accessibility or other reasons
- the “solution” for accessibility is pure trash
- it can be trivially detected and reversed. I suspect LLM would be incredibly better at adapting to this than anything done manually too
It’s basically a kid playing with “encrypshun” client-side, giving both the cipher and the key to the client and hoping it’ll work. Or, as other put it, DRM that don’t work for any of its original purpose, but create an additional layer of complexity and missing features, a common trend in modern projects.
Speaking of flash, serving your content in Flash keeps scrapers at bay
/hj don’t do that, it does work though!
they really cooked with that video, got me more excited than with most trailers
If the underlying text says one thing but the font makes it appear to say something else, which version does the author own the copyright to?
Learn shorthand. AI can’t read it. Gregg Shorthand Anniversary Edition is practically indecipherable to AI. And it allows you to write at up to 300 wpm.
