11:42 PM
Web Content Protectors:
While I was searching for images for a reverse Google search to find products, I encountered a particular webpage that caused some annoyance. It happened to be a website hosted on Shopify. Whenever I attempted to access the developer tools to inspect the images, the page would swiftly redirect to a blank page or revert to the previous page.
Clearly, this behavior was a result of some JavaScript code attempting to discern my intentions, despite my genuine lack of any malicious intent. My sole purpose was to conduct product research, and I had no intention of pilfering any information or images from the site. Fortunately, Chrome provides an option to disable JavaScript for specific websites under "Privacy & Security" -> "Site Settings" -> "JavaScript," allowing me to add the problematic website to the list of sites not permitted to use JavaScript. This simple adjustment allowed the site to load without issues, granting me full functionality.
The irony lies in the fact that this service is marketed as a solution to prevent data scraping. In truth, many scrapers avoid loading JavaScript on the pages they target, and those that do use JavaScript are often searching for precisely the kind of code that interferes with user actions. If data collection was the aim, there exist straightforward workarounds for these measures.
The $10 per month service may indeed deter less tech-savvy individuals from copying images or text, but it's fairer to say that those purchasing this service are likely being deceived. In reality, there is no foolproof method to prevent such actions from occurring.
