ChatGPT aided users aiming to bypass paywalls, but OpenAI put a stop to it.
OpenAI has disabled the Browse with Bing feature in ChatGPT to prevent users from bypassing paywalls and accessing website information without making a subscription first.
They do that to let search engines index their articles. Then they switch on the paywall an hour later or so but still get a lot of traffic (which is good for advertising) when people click on the link on Google etc.
The crawler identifies itself as a “robot” which can get past the paywall. When you browse using Chrome the site behaves differently. That’s why it’s so easy to get past by pasting the link into archive.ph
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This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I’m wondering why websites keep using fake paywalls when they can use a real one where the content isn’t available until user verification.
SEO
They do that to let search engines index their articles. Then they switch on the paywall an hour later or so but still get a lot of traffic (which is good for advertising) when people click on the link on Google etc.
The crawler identifies itself as a “robot” which can get past the paywall. When you browse using Chrome the site behaves differently. That’s why it’s so easy to get past by pasting the link into archive.ph