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CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)

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Re: CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)

#421

Post by LudwigNagasena »

throwaway936482 wrote: post #169
artichokes wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those aren't anything like the sort of questions involved in IQ tests. IQ tests rarely involve words at all, usually a series of geometric shapes where you're supposed to pick the next one.

Depends on the test. There's been a move away from tests that require cultural or language specific knowledge and which instead rely on "which shape in the sequence comes next" type questions but they have their own set of problems in that they don't capture linguistic ability which is a part of intelligence, and are also useless for blind people. Earlier IQ tests required a lot of culturally specific knowledge, and…

Culturally specific knowledge obviously correlates with an ability to learn by the very definition of the ability to learn.

I doubt this viewpoint is out of fashion. The problem is that it is hard to compare people from different environments if you use knowledge that depends on the environment...

Re: CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)

#422

Post by tomxor »

Reason077 wrote: post #176

I understand the purpose of CAPTCHAs when used as a security measure, but recently it seems like there has been a huge proliferation of them in all sorts of random places and it’s becoming very annoying. Even Google has taken to occasionally popping up CAPTCHAs just so I can see search results! (“suspicious activity on your network” - I’m using a reputable, top-tier UK mobile provider) Is there grounds to legally cha…

> I’m using a reputable, top-tier UK mobile provider

I'm in the UK too and have found that If you use any mobile internet provider, and have a browser configuration that dumps cookies etc on close, you will get a google captcha every - single - fucking - time... I just end up tunneling everything through sshuttle to one of my servers to save time, but these days you also get a bunch of websites blocking IP address blocks assigned to datacenters, so you can't win :(

As far as I can tell all mobile internet IP addresses are black listed for google captcha - I assume because they are frequently rotated between users.

I've found this to be the case for Three, EE, and O2 so far (been testing them all out to find the fastest because fixed line internet always sucks around here). I presume it's not the same on a smart phone mostly because people don't have such aggressive browser cache/cookie etc purging configured.

Re: CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)

#423

Post by im3w1l »

DarkWiiPlayer wrote: post #268
dayve wrote: post #247

Being an African born & bred in Nigeria, I particularly find this appalling. Captcha usually asks users to identify fire hydrants, crosswalks & other objects with design patterns that are not common here, in everyday living. There's a big question on whether these approaches work well for onboarding the next billion users to the internet, especially since the demographics are much different from existing internet use…

My prediction: This will lead to new users being turned away from established products from the anglosphere and develop their own alternatives. Maybe after a while the big companies will notice and adapt, which might already be too late by then, or maybe they just buy the smaller ones directly, who knows.

It has to get bad enough for users to turn away. And it arguably isn't, yet.

Re: CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)

#424

Post by curryst »

StavrosK wrote: post #239
OJFord wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think 'crosswalks' require road traffic give way to pedestrians? Don't they just mark where crossing the road is not 'jaywalking'?

Hmm, I thought they did, but now that you mention it I realize I'm not sure. In the UK they do, but "crosswalk" refers to the US one. Can any US people clarify?

The presence of a crosswalk generally gives pedestrians the right of way. At traffic lights, there are normally the usual car traffic lights (red, yellow and green), and then "pedestrian traffic lights" that face the crosswalks. The pedestrian traffic lights usually light up white in the shape of a person when you have the right of way to cross the crosswalk, or they show a red hand if you do not have the right of way.

For crosswalks not at an intersection (typically when there is several hundred feet of road without an intersection for crosswalks), I believe pedestrians always have the right of way. Sometimes they have a button you can push that will activate yellow lights overhead so drivers know that you're crossing (primarily useful at night). I think you have the right of way regardless, but given how little attention many people pay, I tend to treat them like I'm jaywalking anyways.

Re: CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)

#425

Post by delecti »

nailer wrote: post #387
dayve wrote: post #247

Being an African born & bred in Nigeria, I particularly find this appalling. Captcha usually asks users to identify fire hydrants, crosswalks & other objects with design patterns that are not common here, in everyday living. There's a big question on whether these approaches work well for onboarding the next billion users to the internet, especially since the demographics are much different from existing internet use…

I'm not entirely sure what a crosswalk is. I /guess/ it's a pedestrian crossing, but I wouldn't put money on it.

Yes, crosswalks are a marked place on a road where pedestrians are supposed to cross. They often have dedicated signaling to let you know when you have the right-of-way to cross. The signaling usually looks like this [1], though typically the other fingers on the hand aren't blacked out, so it's a full hand, rather than one showing a middle finger (I couldn't quickly find a better example).

https://imgur.com/gallery/LFm2dyh

Re: CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)

#426

Post by crankyoldcrank »

warp wrote: post #420
cvhashim wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is already happening. Hopefully local entrepreneurs in their own countries can continue to build for their countrymen before people like Zuckerberg and Bezos get their hands in the metaphorical pot, and suck all the wealth right back to the US like economic hitmen of the last century.

Facebook is actually doing much better in this regard than Google/Amazon/etc.. For example, in certain developing countries "social media" is included for free with your phone plan, often there is no net neutrality and competition between carriers has forced all of them to offer this. As a result, local businesses are forced to have Facebook and Instagram pages, because their audience cannot visit a regular website o…

> often there is no net neutrality

Hold up, what does this mean, even? I thought "net neutrality" meant classifying ISPs in such a way that they are regulated by the FCC instead of the FTC. Obviously this is an American framing. How does that map to other countries?

Also, I was assured by users on this website and many others that if the ISPs were moved to be regulated by the FTC by evil Ajit Pai the internet as we know it would end. Those actions were taken by the administration three years ago, the media fell silent, and the internet is largely unchanged.

So what do you mean, in an international context, by net neutrality?

Re: CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)

#427

Post by curryst »

Normille wrote: post #254
alias_neo wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do have Zebra, have you never heard of a Zoo? (I jest; you are of course correct). As for cross-walk making more sense; Zebra crossing are so named because of the black and white stripes they comprise of, they require you to have seen one, yes, but, I'd argue that without context "cross-walk" is no more descriptive. Collectively, we call our crossings (Toucan, Pelican, Zebra, Pegasus), "road crossings". They are s…

Another one that I've seen on reCraptchas is "Boardwalk". If it had not been for the song "Under the boardwalk" I'd have had no idea what that was referring to. We call it a "Pier" round these parts. Taking Crosswalk as a reference, Boardwalk sounds like it should therefore refer to a place where you walk on some boards... such as where there are roadworks... or a wooden bridge... or outside the saloon in a Western.

In fairness, I don't think this is well known in the US. My impression was always that a boardwalk is just a pier that no longer has any use for naval stuff, so they built a carnival on it.

Pier is a more familiar term to me. I think I've only heard the term boardwalk in relation to some place in New Jersey.

Re: CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)

#428

Post by dkdbejwi383 »

altitudinous wrote: post #395

Yes, the American focus of the internet is absolutely appalling. Assumptions of timezones - PST, CST and the others whatever they are. Northern hemisphere assumptions of seasons - fall, etc - in the southern hemisphere the seasons are the opposite and we don't use the word fall. Even Apple, known for its "sensitivity" to cultural matters has a big miss on this one.

Yes, big annoyance of mine is invites to events/streams/etc that start at 10:00 "mountain". What the fuck is that?

Re: CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)

#430

Post by holstvoogd »

Reason077 wrote: post #176

I understand the purpose of CAPTCHAs when used as a security measure, but recently it seems like there has been a huge proliferation of them in all sorts of random places and it’s becoming very annoying. Even Google has taken to occasionally popping up CAPTCHAs just so I can see search results! (“suspicious activity on your network” - I’m using a reputable, top-tier UK mobile provider) Is there grounds to legally cha…

That is because >50% of internet traffic is bots. Mostly BS marketing tools, ad conversion scams and quack-security 'scans' from my experience. Pretty sure the entire captcha proliferation is to reduce fake clicks in google ads.

I've been working on ways to block bots from some websites I manage the hosting for. It is nearly impossible. I rate limit the hell out of most of the world and block a long list of fake user agents. Still like 40% of out traffic is bots.

>'legally challenge CAPTCHAs'

Probably not, depending on where you live etc. Here, in the netherlands only gov. websites are required to be accessible.

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