Google’s new reCAPTCHA has a dark side

Post by nullc » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 5:22 PM UTC

seieste wrote: post #74

There are government services, such as the USPTO, that rely on Google reCAPTCHA. The new reCAPTCHA has made it difficult for me to access documents, and sometimes they think that I'm a bot and thus deny me access entirely. Does the government realize the consequences of this? Both that it pushes users to use Chromium-based browsers, and that they're helping to solidify a company that already has a near monopoly in th…

Post by ballenf » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 5:25 PM UTC

1_player wrote: post #137

paulcarroty wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also Google punishes Firefox users by forcing them to click on pictures 2-3 times more than Chrome.

Same with Brave: I'm logged in into a gmail account and a custom domain hosted on gmail, yet every time there's a reCAPTCHA widget on the site, I have to do it 2 or 3 times before I'm let in. One trick that seems to help fool that awful piece of tech: click slowly on the images, as if you were thinking a second or two before each click. Maybe click a wrong image and deselect it again. In other words, behave like a sl…

Post by jimmaswell » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 5:26 PM UTC

oil25 wrote: post #81

ulfw wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's even worse when you're running a VPN (especially one of the major public ones). When I see reCAPTCHA I basically give up as sometimes I have to go through 6 or 7 full sets to be let into a site. It's the evil of the internet this.

reCAPTCHA on VPN is difficult, but on the Tor network, they are downright impossible. I've never been able to get past it, even after a few dozen painful attempts. That means Google services are entirely off-limits over Tor, even Search, which is a disgrace.

Post by Asooka » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 5:27 PM UTC

jcomis wrote: post #47

I hate the v3 reCAPTCHA. On FF, I usually KNOW I am answering correctly and it says I failed. I always have to go through it multiple times. It's maddening. It often leaves me second guessing myself... is that sliver of car counted? is a crossing signal a street light? What about those streetlights way off in the distance, do I select those two in addition to the ones front and center? That RV looks sort of like a bu…

Post by baq » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 5:30 PM UTC

lonelappd wrote: post #176

baq wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they have a patent on giving out unbeatable challenges when the computer thinks it's dealing with a 'malicious agent'. https://patents.google.com/patent/US9407661B2/en

That's Juniper, not Google. Juniper patented saying "No" to a client.