Ask HN: Are you seeing an increase in reCaptcha challenges?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18320236

by aosaigh • 8 years ago

3 7 8 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I seem to be constantly having to pick out traffic lights, shop fronts and cars when logging into services these days.

I was previously using a VPN and that seemed to increase my exposure to reCaptcha but I've noticed that even without the VPN enabled there seems to be far more services using these as validation when logging users in.

Has you noticed an increase in these reCaptcha challenges and if so, is there a particular reason for this?

sarah123ed• 8 years ago

I've noticed it. Very much so. I've thought it might be because I use TrackMeNot but, I've been using that for a long time so, even given that, I've seen a lot more reCaptcha. Yes.

nhkssol• 8 years ago

Yes.

My instinct is that it was a result of running Linux as it is likely the majority of spam requests come from Linux servers whereas the majority of legitimate requests come from Windows computers. It makes sense that anti-spam systems would take this into account. To fix this I changed my browser fingerprint to tell websites I was running Windows. I have no data to prove it, but I feel as though this has reduced the number of CAPTCHAs I've had to complete.

Also, it is possible websites are increasing their anti-spam measures as a result of the alleged Russian interference in the politics of western countries using bot/spam accounts.

My final theory is that someone is paying them a lot of money for the data they collect for use in training their self-driving vehicle AI. In this case they would want to show you CAPTCHAs more frequently to collect more data to sell for more profit.

aosaigh• 8 years ago

My final theory is that someone is paying them a lot of money for the data they collect for use in training their self-driving vehicle AI. In this case they would want to show you CAPTCHAs more frequently to collect more data to sell for more profit.

That's an interesting thought. I hadn't really thought about it being a training set for self-driving AI but that would make sense given that all examples are from Google Street View nowadays.

NicoJuicy• 8 years ago

Try logging in with ea origin ...

kuratkull• 8 years ago

There have lately been cases where I spend 15 seconds clicking cars or shop fronts. Also the super slow unload-load animation is frustrating. I guess Google is using the data to power their computer vision, or sells it. So it would be reasonable to assume they have raised the number of captchas they show and the images you have to click.

drewg123• 8 years ago

I've assumed that it is due to ublock origin and blocking enough cross domain stuff that I'm not being fingerprinted adequately, so I fall into the "must be a bot" bucket.

I've actually found myself switching loyalty and booking Marriot properties rather than Hilton for business travel because the reCaptcha makes it such a PITA to book anything on Hilton's site.

Kaveren• 8 years ago

I have nothing to add, other than that yes, recently I noticed an increase in challenges. I do use a VPN. I'm not entirely sure I'm not just imagining it, but it certainly seems to be the case.

It used to be bearable. Now I have to go through multiple series of challenges often, sometimes many times.

I'd take a computational challenge over spending a minute selecting images any day.

Edit: Sometimes it's so bad that I get the impression that a site is a scam attempting to get me to fill out reCAPTCHAs so bots can use them.

Ask HN: Are you seeing an increase in reCaptcha challenges?

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