this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
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Mildly Interesting

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This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.

This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?

Just post some stuff and don't spam.

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[–] [email protected] 91 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The point of captcha is for Google to track users, not to prevent bots.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 1 year ago (2 children)

No, the point is to train the AI.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That's a side project, and doesn't explain all the services that use it without images.

Regardless, you always have to connect to 3 different domains - typically the website itself, google.com and gstatic.com. These 3 domains allow for very accurate triangulation across the internet, and each one will fingerprint your browser. They might not know your bank account number or social media account name, but they know that someone using your browser banks with this bank and has an account on that social media, along with thousands of other data points.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Not anymore it ain't. If they were to keep using it that way, bots' scores would go down.

[–] [email protected] 70 points 1 year ago (6 children)

It’s so obvious it’s a scam too because of how vague some of the “challenges” are. “Click all the squares that contain a bike” and then you do it in every conceivable way AND IT STILL WONT ACCEPT YOUR SUBMISSION. Stupid

[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Have you considered that you may be a bot?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

G A S P I’d never thought about it that way before. I need to go see a mechanic now to check

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Cease all motor functions, enter Analysis mode, turn the other cheek.

[–] static_motion 4 points 1 year ago

Have you ever questioned the nature of your own reality?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Well, apparently, statistically speaking he is more likely to be human according to the original post. We'll never know.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I’ve had a Captcha that required an image like this one to be classified as a bike

Ceci n'est pas un vélo

[–] static_motion 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Fixed, thanks

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Well, to be fair, it is a depiction of a bicycle.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Incredible, honestly. Whatta crock 🤣

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have a suspicion that it might depend on a few factors that might be related to Google’s ability to track, such as the browsers you use and whether you’re on VPN. I saw a post on Lemmy the other day (can’t remember where) that they suspect captcha is more annoying on Firefox, whereas fine with Chrominum-based browsers, esp Google Chrome. I think I sometimes experienced this as well, but I didn’t keep track.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yep when using a VPN I get way more captchas on Google web searches (regardless of browser).

It makes it really annoying to search on Google, to the point I want to turn off my VPN or use other search engines.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

It's also likely that it is because they are seeing a large number of searches from one IP (the VPN exit server), and that can look like bots.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For search engines, I’ve never used it but there’s whoogle that’s supposed to be proxy for google search.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Here's the thing about all search engines that aren't Google (including the ones "based" on Google results). They all suck for regional results in many non-Latin languages.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I had one today where it was click on all the squares that contain a bus. One square very clearly contained a truck, not a bus. When I didn't select that square, it told me I was wrong.

They're so infuriating.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Sounds about like me every fucking time lol

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I’ve never in my life failed a captcha. Maybe you’re just bad at identifying bikes?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

I just failed five by doing them correctly. It was sure there were more bicycles, but it was motorbikes.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

sigh Could be 😔

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Very simple. You solve it too fast, it thinks you're a bot and you fail it. Click slowly and you will pass it every time.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 year ago

So does anyone know if there is a bot I can load on my phone and PC to auto solve these and save me the annoyance?

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I've always thought that CAPTCHA also checksfor time, e.g. if the correct solution is entered too fast, it will determine that you are a bot. This would mean that a fast bot would not really "win". Not sure if this is the case or why I've thought it is, but it came to my mind from this 😅

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The captcha with the checkbox tracks a lots of items like mouse movement, browsing history etc. Full list is not public but they use all their spying tools on that one

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

When I added the contact form on my website, I wanted to add reCaptcha so it would protect me from spam emails and make it easier for people by not having to click on pictures of fire hydrants. Reading a little about the privacy concerns about reCaptcha, I dropped it all together. I am in the EU, have a small numbers of visitors, it'a B2B thing so it was not worth it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wonder if Cloudflare Turnstile is any better

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I always had the impression that only checks for ddos and bot activity. Might be wrong tho.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The entire point of a captcha is to stop bots, so a Turnstile verification stopping bots would qualify

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Makes sense. Thanks for the info!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've seen those puzzle piece captchas (common on crypto exchanges) that always say I completed the puzzle faster than 99% of users (even if I didn't do the puzzle particularly fast). I presume those 99% are all bots attempting to hack into crypto wallets.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Or, maybe, the 99% is a lie

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For any podcast fans, the latest episode of Secretly Incredibly Fascinating is all about CAPTCHA and very interesting.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Off topic, but it may also interest people to note that their previous episode was on bras.

I haven't listened to either yet, but apparently I need to set aside 2 hours of my time and not just 1.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is there a Bra conspiracy out there or just history and information.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Just history and info, still a good podcast though!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Both are good! Hosted by Alex Schmidt for any old Cracked fans.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Plot twist: Getting it wrong proves you're human. Now tell me which pictures have bridges.