Infinite reCAPTCHAs: why?

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You know all the CAPTCHA, Right? They are those very fun images to guess to prove that we are not bots. In fact, they were created to protect sites from spam and bots. And guess who the CAPTCHA most used, the ones you see almost everywhere? That's right, I'm from Google ¹. We have already talked about it in the past in an article dedicated to alternatives to Google reCAPTCHA. These days, on some Browsers, captain of the reCAPTCHA almost infinite. Why?
Ah, obviously we implied it but perhaps it is better to specify it. Being i reCAPTCHA Of Google every time you press the "I'm not a robot" button you are accepting their conditions of use.

The writer uses it normally Brave to navigate. Because I find it convenient, practical and fast. Lately, however, I've noticed that i CAPTCHA they have become almost unsolvable. Very long and very boring. Someone who uses Firefox points out the same thing on the our Telegram group. Then I also read this post on Reddit where apparently several people have noticed this problem and one has also been opened issue on GitHub.

Infinite reCAPTCHAs: why?

I then decided to try different ones Browsers at the address patrickhlauke.github.io/recaptcha. What you see in the GIF above is what happens on mine Brave without any extra extensions installed.
With Firefox (with uBlock and other extensions) more or less the same happens. I open Edge and instead the test is much quicker: errors are rarely given and when the images disappear and reappear they go much faster. Ditto with Chrome.

The magic, as we already suspected, is that if we make a Google login on Chrome things are much, much better. Everything is solved in a few seconds.
But if we do a Google login on Brave things don't change much. Nobody knows exactly how the reCAPTCHA Of Google but it's not hard to imagine given how it behaves.

Let's try to summarize it better: if you don't login to Google, if not used Google Chrome and if you have any extension to protect privacy for Google you are the equivalent of a bot. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Without Google and without Chrome, CAPTCHAs are infinite

Now let's transport everything into the real world and immediately understand why monopolies are a huge problem and why we must avoid, as much as possible, making Google the simple life.

The mental process of a person who uses the computer for leisure and who has no technical knowledge (or in any case does not want to keep up with these things) is simple. The reCAPTCHA it is present everywhere, it is often placed a little haphazardly and is not always necessary. Other times it would be better to implement real security methods such as two-factor authentication and leave aside the reCAPTCHA during logins.

A person with Google Chrome installed and with Gmail will have to resolve CAPTCHA simple and lasting a few seconds. However, if the same person decides to switch to Brave or Firefox and maybe even decides to do without Google the whole web will turn against him and wonder why I have infinite reCAPTCHAs?

So what will this person do? Most likely will abandon the alternative to Chrome and will return home quickly Google because everything is faster and everything works better. But it is an ecosystem that Google it is self-built and that the developers, inserting the reCAPTCHA everywhere, they also allowed to Google to do the good and the bad times.

Browsing with Firefox and Brave can be harmful but it's Google's fault

Giving all this power to a single private company is harmful as well as dangerous: use today Brave or Firefox to navigate is much more complex and not why Firefox or Brave they are terrible Browsers but because the network is now littered with pieces of Google. The sites use Google Fonts, many use the Cloud CDN Of Google, others use the reCAPTCHA. Let's not talk about the "log in with Google” and advertisements for Google (AdSense, practically all the ones you see on the sites). We deliberately leave out the entire part of Android where it is really not at all simple to have a notification system without using Google Services (ProtonMail she hasn't succeeded yet ², Tutanota Yes ³).

Often (not always, sometimes there isn't Really a simple solution) is also the fault of some developers who perhaps don't want to use or think of alternatives. Or, as unfortunately often happens, it is the customer who requests a reCAPTCHA (perhaps unmotivated) and the developer is forced to execute perhaps reluctantly.

Not everyone realizes how much it is sprawling Google and how risky it is to leave all this power in the hands of a single private company.

The paradox we have arrived at is that this solution to the problem is causing more damage than the problem itself.

If you are interested in the topic also this article about reCAPTCHAs and Cookies advertisers it may interest you.

1. What is reCAPTCHA?[↩]
2. Remove dependency on google play services[↩]
3. #NoMoreGoogle: Tutanota is one of the few services that does not use Google Push.[↩]

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