> If I had to guess where most of this traffic is coming from, it's from compromised smart appliances contributing traffic to proxy networks.

I find it interesting that we have a moral panic over giving people access to their own smartphones, because if the user has access they may get a virus, with negative knock-on effects on the internet...

...but there is no push to remove the same capabilities from smart appliances. They can do what they want. The user doesn't have access, which appears to be what counts. The appliance has access, so its viruses can do all the same things that have to be forbidden on phones, but that doesn't matter.

There's an interesting potential future where personal computing is illegal, unless you buy a refrigerator for the purpose.

That potential future is inching ever closer to reality.

It was never about users. It's all about the corporations. They want to extract rent from their digital serfs, they want to not lose money due to fraud, piracy or whatever else, they want to push unblockable ads, etc. They have "legitimate interests", also known as lobbying power. To these guys, our interest in maintaining control over our machines, sovereignty over our digital domains, is seen as active hostility.

I think one day we'll need to cryptographically attest that our computers are corporate owned in order to even get an internet connection. It's the corporation's computer, they're just generously allowing us to use it, and only on their terms.