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Google Cloud fraud defense, the next evolution of reCAPTCHA

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Re: Google Cloud fraud defense, the next evolution of reCAPTCHA

#151
post #6

Google building harder walls against bots while simultaneously building AI agents that need to get through them is peak 2026.

With the apparent competence that built Gemini, I have zero faith in Google building or doing anything that works anymore.

To counter the idiot downvotes, I proffer this as a prime example of Gemini:

  Resolving Final Compilation Conflict: I will remove the redundant `Entry` type declaration to resolve the compilation conflict and finalize the in-memory `StdNetDB` refactor.

    Edit  std.go → Accepted (+0, -1)

      31   type Entry struct {
      32       RouterInfo *router_info.RouterInfo
      33   }
      34 -
      34   func NewStdNetDB(db string) *StdNetDB {
      35       ctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(context.Background())
      36       return &StdNetDB{
That and the cli keeps exiting 0, without hinting why... Quality like the "AI Overview" that hijacks an entire page and isn't even relevant to the search terms - uBlock still doing god's work.

It made me realise I was perhaps a bit hard on Claude (but then it did something equally as dumb)

Re: Google Cloud fraud defense, the next evolution of reCAPTCHA

#152

Serious question: what if you don’t have a (smart)phone?

I shuddered when I realized that Google would require (smart)phones for recaptcha. I say this because I used to have a dumb-phone for an year and more and I only stopped using it when it broke (its battery fried but its replacable but I don't find battery its size). No smart-phone period,(I am a teen so I can afford to do that) Recently, I wanted to make a google account, guess-what, I literally couldn't make a googl…

[deleted]

Re: Google Cloud fraud defense, the next evolution of reCAPTCHA

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I expected mostly snark from my earnest question, And got it. Ok, concrete scenario. What about homeless people using the computer at the library? Im pretty sure Google wouldn’t intentionally cut marginalized people like this off from the entire internet, would they? Please don’t respond with sarcasm.

> Im pretty sure Google wouldn’t intentionally cut marginalized people like this off from the entire internet, would they? Please don’t respond with sarcasm. Honestly, if you ask such terminally naive questions don't be surprised to get sarcasm in reply. Google does cut off access to chunks of people if it deems it profitable to do so!

It doesn't matter how "naive" you think a question is. Nobody here deserves sarcastic remarks in response to a good-faith question.

Literally the first guideline under "In Comments" is:

> Be kind. *Don't be snarky.*

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Google Cloud fraud defense, the next evolution of reCAPTCHA

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smartphone is just a small computer. I don't see hiw what you say makes sense.

It's a small computer that I don't really control with a horrible UI, horrible privacy, and nothing but perverse incentives. ("download the app!")

There’s no going back unfortunately. There’s no world where smartphones go away barring a new tech as significant and useful as a smartphone.

Re: Google Cloud fraud defense, the next evolution of reCAPTCHA

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m already sick and tired of seeing cloudflares “making sure you aren’t a bot” checkbox everywhere. Sometimes it locks me out entirely and decides I don’t get to view pages. I see recaptcha less frequently but it’s much more annoying, with all the clicking of crosswalks, or busses, or whatever. I am not looking forward to a web where google can not only lock me out of my email, but also large sections of the previou…

But what's the alternative? Sites need a way to prevent bots overwhelming them, and there's no perfect way to distinguish real users from bots.

mCaptcha, ALTCHA, Cap, Friendly Captcha, Private Captcha, Procaptcha, Anubis... there are literally dozens of open source alternatives that aren't feeding the Do Be Evil company... not to mention all of the commercial alternatives - if for whatever reason, you do feel like paying for a service that costs nothing to offer

Re: Google Cloud fraud defense, the next evolution of reCAPTCHA

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That means you're a peasant, and don't matter. Don't worry, they'll work with telecoms and carriers to ensure devices matching your budget are subsidized and made available at every possible opportunity.

I expected mostly snark from my earnest question, And got it. Ok, concrete scenario. What about homeless people using the computer at the library? Im pretty sure Google wouldn’t intentionally cut marginalized people like this off from the entire internet, would they? Please don’t respond with sarcasm.

> Im pretty sure Google wouldn’t intentionally cut marginalized people like this off from the entire internet, would they?

Sure they would. Cloudflare has already arbitrarily blocked entire swathes of the internet. Captcha as well. Your average user ends up going to the path of least resistance, and end up with a compliant ISP or carrier that's doing all sorts of censorship and gatekeeping and siloing and funneling.

And if they did get noticed, they'd whip up some sort of program through their cronies like the Obama phone, and get subsidized service to some token groups, heavily favoring political funneling and defaults supporting whatever party won the grift for that particular round of conspicuous do-gooding.

It's bad, man. For technically savvy people, they can get around things, switch up DNS, muck with vpns, etc. Normal folks are kept firmly within the walled gardens.

Then there's the information silos, platforms, and psychological shit they use. People don't have a chance in hell of getting a free and open link to the internet, what they see is tied to their identity, tied to their service provider, tied to their geographic location, and it's all done seamlessly in the background so they never even notice what they're missing, by design.

It wasn't snark. It's the awful, honest truth, and I have things to suggest involving wire brushes for anyone at Google or any other company involved in this shit.

We need a digital bill of rights, outlawing commercial trafficking in user data, mandatory ephemerality, and penalties involving prison time for CEOs and fines that are rapidly and unavoidably fatal even for companies like Alphabet or Amazon if they screw up even a little bit. Otherwise, this whole pretense at a free and open internet is just a convenient talking point and marketing schlock.

Re: Google Cloud fraud defense, the next evolution of reCAPTCHA

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Im pretty sure Google wouldn’t intentionally cut marginalized people like this off from the entire internet, would they? Why wouldn't they? Google is notorious for making marginalized people's lives harder if it can make them money. Some examples: - Hosting Palantir's ImmigrationOS, used by ICE to track immigrants - Actively removing tools marginalized people use to protect themselves against ICE, such as ICE-track…

Illegal immigrants =/= marginalized people

No person is illegal
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