Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Inside India's CAPTCHA Solving Economy

Posted by Soulskill on from the industries-exist-for-everything-these-days dept.

Anti-Globalism points out an analysis of India's CAPTCHA-solving industry posted at ZDNet. It begins: "No CAPTCHA can survive a human that's receiving financial incentives for solving it, and with an army of low-waged human CAPTCHA solvers officially in the business of data processing while earning a mere $2 for solving a thousand CAPTCHAs, I'm already starting to see evidence of consolidation between India's major CAPTCHA solving companies. The consolidation, logically leading to increased bargaining power, is resulting in an international franchising model recruiting data processing workers empowered with do-it-yourself CAPTCHA syndication web based kits, API keys, and thousands of proxies to make their work easier and the process more efficient."

7 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. Proof that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    you CANNOT stop advertising/spam. There is simply too much money in it. I think Ani said it best when she said "Fuck this time and place".

  2. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  3. Temporary problem... by Firethorn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    or much better developed, which would ruin this business model as far as I can see.

    It's starting to happen. Give it another 20 years and Indian wages will be high enough that this sort of stuff won't happen because Indian wages will be almost as high as a US worker's wages.

    China, I think, will take a bit longer, but I think they'll end up using up their own labor that's coming off the farms and such for the most part during the later stages of their industrialization.

    Heck US manufacturing goods exports and domestic production have been increasing recently, and that hasn't happened in years.

    --
    I don't read AC A human right
    1. Re:Temporary problem... by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's starting to happen. Give it another 20 years and Indian wages will be high enough that this sort of stuff won't happen because Indian wages will be almost as high as a US worker's wages.

      Then the problem will simply move elsewhere. There will always be someone at the bottom of the wage food chain, willing to work for relative peanuts.
      This is already happening.

  4. So let me get this straight... by An+Ominous+Cow+Erred · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...you're going to reduce the human population by cloning the U.S. military's Reporting and Planning Terminal?

  5. Pointers? by Luthair · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wonder if they have any pointers, I fail at CAPTCHAs all the time.

  6. Re:antispam wetware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Some of us are already doing this. I employ an India-based 'personal assistant' to do a lot of the pointless tasks I don't want to waste my time with.
    This costs me $45 U.S. a month for about 15 hours work. One of the tasks she does for me is log into my email account a few times a day and delete and spam. Simple, really.