I had a very time-sensitive and bureaucratic thing to do. It involved making an appointment. I've been trying to find an available slot multiple times a day for months. I was frustrated and desperate.

It's one of those highly bureaucratic, annoying processes. The support team is horrible, and I was completely stuck.

After trying every combination of browsers, turning off extensions and devices I could think of, I eventually missed the deadline. Then I randomly checked the site on my phone yesterday, and it was working. There were appointment slots available (even though it didn't help me anymore).

I tore my hair out trying to figure out what had happened.

Apparently, the site relied on some trackers, and data from those trackers was used to send the visitor's location as part of the form request. Bad engineering, for sure. But whatever the reason, I never figured it out because I disabled browser extensions, switched browsers, and tested different devices but I was always using the pihole DNS.

The whole architecture of Pi-hole is "set it and forget it"—and I forgot it was even there.

The modern web relies on countless systems that interfere with your privacy. The more privacy-conscious you become, the more you end up hurting your own internet experience. Some people block JavaScript, block everything, or use Tor exclusively. I sometimes feel like those folks end up with a more miserable life at a cost of a secure one.

I think drawing the line at an ad blocker extension is enough. We're cooked when it comes to privacy. The framework of the modern web is basically: consent or exit. There isn't much room for anything else.

Maybe I'm stupid. Maybe I should have figured this out sooner. But I think being part of the mainstream internet probably gives you a slightly more frictionless experience than being highly privacy-conscious ever will.