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Why can’t a bot tick the 'I'm not a robot' box?

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Re: Why can’t a bot tick the 'I'm not a robot' box?

#41

Post by mehrdadn »

teilo wrote: post #6
djflutt3rshy wrote: post #2

The box has made browsing using TOR insufferable! It fusses and makes me click storefronts and traffic lights until I run out of patience and close out of whatever webpage I was trying to visit. I assume it has to do with a lack of Google cookies on the browser, essentially punishing me for trying to protect my privacy.

Those images are infuriating! Click all boxes with traffic lights. Ok, well, this one box just barely contains the bottom right corner of the traffic light. Click. Nope, that little corner didn't count. Try again. Ok, well on this one, the right side of the traffic light is only barely over the line, so I won't click it. Nope, that sliver of the light mattered this time. MF!

I'm convinced the ambiguity is intentional. What I don't get is what answer they expect in those scenarios.

Re: Why can’t a bot tick the 'I'm not a robot' box?

#42

Post by roywiggins »

SilasX wrote: post #16
teilo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those images are infuriating! Click all boxes with traffic lights. Ok, well, this one box just barely contains the bottom right corner of the traffic light. Click. Nope, that little corner didn't count. Try again. Ok, well on this one, the right side of the traffic light is only barely over the line, so I won't click it. Nope, that sliver of the light mattered this time. MF!

Heh, maybe one day they can show a bunch of pictures of sand, where each subsequent pic has a grain removed, with the instructions "click on all the heaps". Spambots will solve the Sorites paradox!

"Click all the ships of Theseus"

Re: Why can’t a bot tick the 'I'm not a robot' box?

#43

Post by eridius »

Lately I've been getting reCAPTCHA prompts all the time even though I'm not browsing in incognito mode and haven't cleared cookies. All I'm doing is running a very basic ad blocker, using Safari (which blocks third-party tracking), and very rarely loading a Google site. The most interaction I have with Google is when I end up having to use my corporate Google account as SSO for some other site.

Given that I'm not doing anything unusual, it really feels to me like reCAPTCHA, for all its complexity, boils down to "what's your history using Google software? Oh you rarely use it? I'm gonna give you a captcha". It didn't used to be this aggressive, but it's really ramped up in the past few weeks.

Re: Why can’t a bot tick the 'I'm not a robot' box?

#44

Post by noir_lord »

wmf wrote: post #38
hexo wrote: post #35

Why can't I just run headless chrome of firefox and have my bot click it there? "Aha here it is, so I click using system 'fake' mouse click". where's the catch?

The script can detect the difference between real Chrome and headless Chrome.

Point a webcam at the screen and wire a mouse to the computer controlling the webcam, you'd have to simulate the computer moving the mouse like a human would but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

Re: Why can’t a bot tick the 'I'm not a robot' box?

#45

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

eridius wrote: post #43

Lately I've been getting reCAPTCHA prompts all the time even though I'm not browsing in incognito mode and haven't cleared cookies. All I'm doing is running a very basic ad blocker, using Safari (which blocks third-party tracking), and very rarely loading a Google site. The most interaction I have with Google is when I end up having to use my corporate Google account as SSO for some other site. Given that I'm not doi…

Randomized user agent also seems to trigger reCAPTCHA without real cause. Should be an ADA violation for doing that.

Re: Why can’t a bot tick the 'I'm not a robot' box?

#46

Post by jononor »

mehrdadn wrote: post #41
teilo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those images are infuriating! Click all boxes with traffic lights. Ok, well, this one box just barely contains the bottom right corner of the traffic light. Click. Nope, that little corner didn't count. Try again. Ok, well on this one, the right side of the traffic light is only barely over the line, so I won't click it. Nope, that sliver of the light mattered this time. MF!

I'm convinced the ambiguity is intentional. What I don't get is what answer they expect in those scenarios.

It is just a consequence of other humans also having problems with these cases. They do not mind that you have to make multiple attempts, it is just more yummy data for their bots (their machine learning algorithms are trained on this stuff).

Re: Why can’t a bot tick the 'I'm not a robot' box?

#47

Post by scrooched_moose »

pixl97 wrote: post #26
CodeMage wrote: post #11

Is there any place where I can find a comprehensive list of countermeasures to stop Google from recording and analyzing all the stuff that the article lists? According to the article: It turns out they record and analyse: - Your computer’s timezone and time - Your IP address and rough location - Your screen size and resolution - What browser you’re using - What plugins you’re using - How long the page took to display…

Turn off javascript, mostly. To hide your ip you need to use a VPN.

Is noscript still the best for that? I haven't looked at other options in a long time.

Re: Why can’t a bot tick the 'I'm not a robot' box?

#48

Post by justtopost »

eridius wrote: post #43

Lately I've been getting reCAPTCHA prompts all the time even though I'm not browsing in incognito mode and haven't cleared cookies. All I'm doing is running a very basic ad blocker, using Safari (which blocks third-party tracking), and very rarely loading a Google site. The most interaction I have with Google is when I end up having to use my corporate Google account as SSO for some other site. Given that I'm not doi…

It happens to me occasionally and I am basically blacklisted from the internet. I have to solve 5 in a row and if I screw up its idea of what a streetsign is, I have to start over. It has made me cut out usage of most sites that use this broken and abusive tech. Welcome to the digital ghetto.

Re: Why can’t a bot tick the 'I'm not a robot' box?

#49

Post by xiphias2 »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #24
xiphias2 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could use a memory-hard hashing function, like ARGON2 for proof of work, it would make spamming much harder.

Not really, because spam isn't done on the spammer's hardware. Not to mention, an expensive hashing function is precisely something bots can do but humans cannot. If you're putting constraints on Tor traffic, it's not because of raw throughput. It's because it's extremely poor quality traffic.

I see..the goal of ARGON2 is not to be expensive, but to be hard to parallize. Anyways the other points that you wrote make sense.

Re: Why can’t a bot tick the 'I'm not a robot' box?

#50

Post by nprateem »

Kalium wrote: post #7
djflutt3rshy wrote: post #2

The box has made browsing using TOR insufferable! It fusses and makes me click storefronts and traffic lights until I run out of patience and close out of whatever webpage I was trying to visit. I assume it has to do with a lack of Google cookies on the browser, essentially punishing me for trying to protect my privacy.

This might surprise you, but it actually has to do with what traffic coming out of TOR looks like. Well in excess of 90% of traffic coming out of TOR is spam, bots, malicious, or some combination! Google isn't going out of their way to punish you for trying to protect your privacy. They're trying to stop unwanted traffic. By unfortunate happenstance, you appear to be disguising yourself in the exact same way a shocki…

I think they do exactly that. For example disabling browser fingerprinting in firefox and not being logged into Google causes the majority of sites to display the captcha, especially when using a VPN.
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