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Google Launches reCAPTCHA v3 That Detects Bad Traffic Without User Interaction (zdnet.com)
Google has pushed an update to its reCAPTCHA technology that the company has been offering since 2007 to fight off bots on the world wide web. From a report: reCAPTCHA v3, as the new version has been branded, is a complete overhaul of the reCAPTCHA technology that we know and... most of the time hate. The good news is that the new system does not require any user interaction anymore. Gone are the days of reCAPTCHA v1 when everyone was trying to decipher in garbled text, and gone are the days of v2 when everyone was getting annoyed at clicking on endless image streams of "store fronts," "roads," and "cars" for up to 2-3 minutes. Instead, reCAPTCHA v3 will use a secret new Google proprietary technology to learn a website's normal traffic and user behavior. Google says that by observing how regular users interact with the website and its sections, it would be able to detect abnormalities and detect bots or undesirable actions.
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Whatever they are doing is fine with me, those image based Capthas are an absolute nightmare, trying to see if one pixel in an image is a sign or a car or whatever.
I think one time I cycled through picking objects something like 15 times! Absurd.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This can't possibly work for me. /s
I find that about one of every 3 or 4 times that I click "Search" on Google after I've already scanned the first page of results it gives me without finding any promising leads, I will get a prompt like that which I have to click in order to proceed.
It's damn annoying to be perfectly honest.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
There's really no way around it... Eventually Chrome will take authentication into the browser, which of course is integration into the Google Service in the back end, and just use that to bypass.
If you're not signed into Chrome (thus signed into Google), you'll get captchas of varying degrees of annoyance until/unless Google no longer needs people to categorize visuals for its AI training, at which point Google will just make a login mandatory under the guise of identity assurance.
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
function is_bot($IP_address, $unique_identity)
{
if (is_any_kind_of_privacy_such_as_Tor_exit_node_or_paid_VPN($IP_address))
return true;
if (is_person_disliked_by_us($unique_identity))
return true;
return false;
}
How much you want to bet you'll be locked out completely with no recourse?
The javascript can read information like mouse movement and other user info and behavior, shipping that off to a google server farm for processing. The actual algo that decides human/not human does not have to reside in the browser side code.
Silence is a state of mime.
... otherwise it appears that google blocks you from continuing. google must assume that all humans will allow google trackers on to their computers and bots won't.
If I understand right, the deal is that website developers now do the heavy lifting work of informing Google about every user and user action on their site, in meaningful profile-building ways, and in return Google will help them recognize bots.
Its similar to the deal they made with Google Analytics (inform Google of page visits and in return get traffic analysis) except the new captcha bargain will extract more visitor-profiling than was ever needed before.
They're data mining your session with the website to see if you're acting like that site's average user. If not, you're blocked. Meaning you'll be required to enable Google's tracking scripts on every website which uses this. Blocking those scripts mean no web content for you.
If you do something different, like open 10 tabs of the next ten articles you want to read... BLOCKED. Assuming most users read articles one at a time.
Basically this is the same tech anti-virus software uses to dynamically categorize running software when trying to figure out if it's a threat or not. Those features don't work too well, so expect this new system to not work as well either.
And for my final point, CAPTCHAs only block initial access to a site. This new system continually monitors your interaction with the site. Previously you could login and then archive a bunch of content. Now you'll be banned if you try to download all your topics/favs. I'd bet money someone with a disability is going to sue Google over this is as it'll probably block everyone using screen readers and other accessibility features. No keyboard-only browsers either. If you prefer addons and shortcuts to jump to the links you want, too bad. Either you use your mouse properly and look at the ads for the average amount of time, or Google will block you. Afterall, the average user isn't blocking ads, so if your mouse rolls over a pre-ad element then hits a post-ad element without entering the ad in between them then obviously you just engaged in an undesirable action. Banned.
This is a horrible service for the end-user. It'll get even worse in a couple years when they add in eye tracking as well.