Automattic Is Creepy

Posted by sndean on Tuesday June 07, 2022 @09:26PM
from the bookandsword.com dept.

https://www.bookandsword.com/2022/06/07/automattic-is-creepy/

( 5 comments | 9 points | on HN )

Re:Automattic Is Creepy by _garrett on Wednesday June 08, 2022 @02:22AM (#31663972)

Automattic is running a pull based CDN that would literally work on any URL. Hardly creepy https://developer.wordpress.com/docs/photon/

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Automattic Is Creepy by pixodaros on Wednesday June 08, 2022 @11:26PM (#31677271)

"Literally work on amy URL" is right. As far as I can tell, if you give i0.wp.com/ i1.wp.com/ or i2.wp.com/ *any URL of a media file* those domains will happily scrape it, spread it around their CDN, and start serving it!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Automattic Is Creepy by pixodaros on Thursday June 09, 2022 @03:49PM (#31685896)

It appears that the Automattic CDN does not just fetch and save files from sites without Wordpress or Jetpack, it fetches and saves them even if robots.txt says no crawlers.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Automattic Is Creepy by thebadsleep on Wednesday June 08, 2022 @03:52AM (#31664515)

It's called "Image Accelerator" in the Dashboard > JetPack screen and can be toggled on and off.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Automattic Is Creepy by pixodaros on Thursday June 09, 2022 @02:12PM (#31684759)

As the OP says, the site in question does not have JetPack installed. And those Automattic domains will copy and serve any media file available at a URL if you call for it.

[ Parent | on HN ]