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Google broke reCAPTCHA for de-googled Android users

reclaimthenet.org

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Re: Google broke reCAPTCHA for de-googled Android users

#62
post #58
post #49

I don't use Android right now and haven't used Google'd Android for almost a decade. And I won't. If this is the hill I die on, so be it. I'm not going to use any sort of hardware attestation, especially one controlled by Google. You shouldn't either, even if you have an unrooted Google-certified Android phone.

It's all fun until you can't get paid because some fintech app doesn't work. That's why we need regulations. I don't see politicians ever going against an advertising company when they're customers.

Indeed, I generally favor being conservative with regulations because they can genuinely impede progress and can be really hard to change or remove when they're bad, but this is an issue that we need regulation for. It's just too much in the interest of big tech to lock us down and strip us of our freedom of compute. Short of regulation.

Unfortunately I see the regulatory environment more likely to go the other way of requiring attestation. I sure hope I'm wrong.

Re: Google broke reCAPTCHA for de-googled Android users

#63
post #14

Sites that use reCAPTCHA/Turnstile/etc. have already been broken for me for years now due to neverending captcha/refresh loops. My ISP regularly changes everyone's IP, and I apparently share an ISP with people who suck, so I get flagged just trying to do all sorts of normal things. Some examples: - I've never bought anything from Etsy but I'm somehow banned from even viewing their site at all. - Discord immediately b…

whenever I can't access a website for various stupid blocks I fire up cloudflare warp and walk right through it use wireguard with wgcf in environments without cloudflare client yeah it's stupid we have to do this in 2026 but I guess cloudflare is the new AOL garden

the fact that this works, as well as cloudflare having a literal web scraping tool available as another product honestly makes my blood boil.

Re: Google broke reCAPTCHA for de-googled Android users

#64

I don't know why reclaimthenet hasn't embraced the obvious answer: Simply create a new smart device operating system with a fully disentangled cosmos of programs, libraries, APIs, app SDKs, hardware partners, drivers, trust networks, carrier agreements, app stores, documentation, conferences...

Mobian, PureOS, postmarketOS already exist. Sent from my Librem 5.

Re: Google broke reCAPTCHA for de-googled Android users

#66
post #61

I don't even have a smart phone, I assume there is some sort of fallback behavior?

The fallback is that you get redirected to a website helpfully demanding you buy a Google- or Apple-vetted smartphone: https://support.google.com/recaptcha/answer/16609652.

You will also see this page if your smartphone is degoogled and you try to open the reCAPTCHA attestation URL in a web browser instead of in Google Play Services.

Re: Google broke reCAPTCHA for de-googled Android users

#68

I don't know why reclaimthenet hasn't embraced the obvious answer: Simply create a new smart device operating system with a fully disentangled cosmos of programs, libraries, APIs, app SDKs, hardware partners, drivers, trust networks, carrier agreements, app stores, documentation, conferences...

and that is gonna be funded by who? anyone who is gonna fund that is gonna want their slice of the pie. we need regulation to keep big tech in line

Re: Google broke reCAPTCHA for de-googled Android users

#69

My understanding is that this new reCAPTCHA is basically just remote attestation. Remote attestation doesn't use blind signatures (as that would be 'farmable') so tying the device to the 'attestee' is technically possible with collusion of Google servers: EK (static burned-in private key) -> AIK (ephemeral identity key in secure enclave signed by a Google server) -> attestation (signed by AIK). As you can see if the…

When companies like this exist, what is the point of relying of TPM? Looks like the future is bright for VC backed bots

https://doublespeed.ai/

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