Live data from Hacker News

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

quora.com

261–270 of 647 posts

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

#261
Could anyone please translate this part to a normal technical description?:

> Google’s invented language is decoded with a key that is changed by the process of reading the language, and the language also changes as it is read.

I feel like that's either some everyday cryptothing that I'm too tired to realize right now (ahem hashing cough?), or some clever stuff that I want to know quite a lot. Or Google cracked the secret of writing Malbolge.

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

#262

As a user who's constantly clicking on the crosswalk or storefront images you can't help but to think that you're essentially working for free training Google's machine learning models by providing them with supervised data points.

That's what ReCaptcha always was... it was originally a known and another unsure text blurb from scanned books/text documents. Now it's street signs etc.

Isn't there a good OSS alternative for ReCaptcha?

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

#263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Google can extract value from captchas, it makes world-class captchas and bot detection AI available to every webmaster for free. I don't know what that level of service would otherwise cost, but it almost certainly wouldn't be affordable for low-traffic blogs and the like, which would end up vulnerable using weaker captchas or trying to roll their own. Everywhere else the cost would just get passed on to use…

> it almost certainly wouldn't be affordable for low-traffic blogs and the like Very few low-traffic blogs that I see use (or need) CAPTCHAs. I know that the ones I run don't. > I don't love the compromise of paying for things with my data or by training Google's AI, but it's hard to say users aren't getting anything out of it. I don't think they are getting much, if anything out of it -- aside from being increasingl…

My personal blog has a spam filter for comments.. it's either that or captcha.. or sign in with Google/Facebook.

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

#265

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.

I get the feeling that 90% of the check is if you are signed into a Google account, otherwise you're going to click some images. I've noticed this a lot of incognito mode where I will almost always have to do a captcha.

I don't think so. When I was traveling in Malaysia a few months ago I was always signed into my Google account, but constantly needed to fill in captchas and even got suspended from Google Scholar for a few hours for "suspicious traffic".

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

#266
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

ADA? Americans with Disabilities Act? Why would that have any bearing on user agent randomization?

I think the argument boils down to "how do you fill out the captcha if you use a screen reader"?

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

#267

As a user who's constantly clicking on the crosswalk or storefront images you can't help but to think that you're essentially working for free training Google's machine learning models by providing them with supervised data points.

Yes, especially when they show you about 15 sets of images in a row taking 2 minutes to complete, clearly going beyond demonstrating you're human.

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

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Send them a message. Switch to another bank, close your account, and tell them why.

Why? My time is valuable. If they want such detailed feedback (i.e. free business advice) from me, they can compensate me for it. I would get nothing in return for spending my time explaining why I'm not going to give them any more of my money.

Presumably they'll already make you waste time talking to a human when you close your account. Might as well mention the captcha to make public the distaste for recaptcha as we are now on this forum.

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

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would've made an awesome SciFi short story. The twist at the end is that she's lying.

Isn't that basically 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep'?

I really liked the added wrinkle in Blade Runner 2049 where replicants have to periodically prove that they're sufficiently robotic.

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

#270

Its getting weird when you have to fill that box in with pen and paper Marci Robin was buying a Fiat 500X from a West Palm Beach, Florida dealership, and was in the final stages of signing all the paperwork, when she was presented with a strange but simple question: was she a robot? This wasn’t online or anything, she was right there, in person, in front of the sales person, who wanted her to check a box, with a pen,…

Sounds like they're filling out an online form acting as the buyer, which might be in uncharted territory legally, and they want to dot every i.
Post reply on HN