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Abandon Google's reCAPTCHA

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Mexk
Aug
fmod Member
2006

Mexk

Forum Moderator Posts: 19,605 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
And replace it with hCaptcha if you absolutely must (https://www.hcaptcha.com/).

A good rundown of why hCaptcha is an entirely valid, privacy-oriented alternative: https://blog.cloudflare.com/moving-from-recaptcha-to-hcaptcha/ . Specifically, note the entire paragraph "A Better CAPTCHA", with emphasis on points (1), (2), and (4).

In essence, reCAPTCHA punishes users with robust cookie blocking policies, effectively deteriorating the website experience for privacy-minded people. Indeed, as someone who actively blocks all Google traffic, having to deliberately open three connections just to access the forums (excluding one for Facebook, hallelujah...) is both frustrating and unnecessary. Why should accessing the forums be at the expense of privacy?

And no, upgrading to reCATPCHA v3 is absolutely not a solution. In fact, it is worse.

Indeed, because the scripts for reCAPTCHA v3 must be loaded on every page of a site, you necessarily have to share your entire browsing session, and thus detailed data about your interactions with the site, with Google. This presents incredibly sensitive data, and everything that can be inferred or otherwise extracted from a website visit will naturally be collected and sent to Google. Oh, and since it relies almost entirely on browser fingerprinting, embrace cross-site tracking unless you diligently ensure distinct, containerised environments.

Could we please not :) .
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Mexk
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Stand up for what is right, even if you stand alone
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13-Jun-2020 15:01:04 - Last edited on 13-Jun-2020 15:02:26 by Mexk

2_Tron

2_Tron

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To 'circumvent' reCAPTCHA, when logged in in RuneScape just go to the Lobby and find a news-link to The RSOF, and you are logged in into The RSOF without the use of reCAPTCHA thus Google not phishing for your data.

Any other '...CAPTCHA' is as bad as the others but on a different level.

13-Jun-2020 17:35:40

Mexk
Aug
fmod Member
2006

Mexk

Forum Moderator Posts: 19,605 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
2_Tron said :
To 'circumvent' reCAPTCHA, when logged in in RuneScape just go to the Lobby and find a news-link to The RSOF, and you are logged in into The RSOF without the use of reCAPTCHA thus Google not phishing for your data.

Any other '...CAPTCHA' is as bad as the others but on a different level.


While that works when you do not take even the bare minimum measures to protect your privacy, it falls short the second you do. Your browsing experience should not include having to go through three hoops of reloading the login page, two sets of reCAPTCHA images, and a ping to Facebook, just because you wish to preserve what little sense of privacy you feel you retain. However, even if you do not browse like me, merely having a proper cookie policy will render that "trick" useless. Also, the argument that you should login to the game in order to access the forums without reCAPTCHA is insane to me.

If you reckon this is yet another CAPTCHA thread, perhaps there is something about it, eh?

Also, I categorically disagree with the notion that any other ...CAPTCHA is as bad. I strongly encourage you to research the matter; the article I provided in my OP should be a reasonable starting point alongside referenced documentation.
¸,.•
Mexk
•.,¸

Stand up for what is right, even if you stand alone
¨`'°«„¸¸„»°'
.............................
'°«„¸¸„»°'´¨

13-Jun-2020 19:12:42 - Last edited on 13-Jun-2020 19:13:15 by Mexk

Maynne

Maynne

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Captcha used to be text-based, very useful in digitizing old near-unreadable printed books. This is documented in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ht4qiDRZE8

Unfortunately, my pet peeve with Catcha today is its migration to image matching system instead of text-based. I often fail on Captcha, especially those annoying traffic lights from a kilometer away, but very grainy to see.

Google stopped digitizing near-unreadable printed books, and Captcha is now used to train their internal AI with machine learning, and us being its unpaid teachers.

I don't want any part of it, I hate the idea of me contributing to the accelerated growing intelligence of our eventual robotic master :P

14-Jun-2020 08:11:48

Iceberg
Sep Member 2008

Iceberg

Posts: 20,587 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Support. I get Captchas all the time because of my cookie blocking. (Cookies belong in a jar anyway ;) )

And I'm fed up of the Captcha thinking that a lamppost is a fire hydrant or that any road marking is a "cross-walk" even if it isn't. :P I get the feeling Google doesn't even check their own images properly. Maybe I've just done too many of them now to have seen some of the incorrectly set-up images. O_o
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14-Jun-2020 11:17:46 - Last edited on 14-Jun-2020 11:19:27 by Iceberg

Loki
Sep Member 2011

Loki

Posts: 65,226 Emerald Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Maynne said :
I often fail on Captcha, especially those annoying traffic lights from a kilometer away, but very grainy to see.
The traffic lights get me every time! :@
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Adam
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Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.

14-Jun-2020 12:27:25

YtHaar-Mej
Dec Member 2005

YtHaar-Mej

Posts: 24,670 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
As someone that gets hit with captcha on mobile devices, it gets very annoying spending extra time having to deal with it EVERY time I attempt to access the login portal just b/c Google doesn't like me blocking tracking.

So if it can be less time consuming for a legitimate user and result in blocking bots from submitting mass requests, then I'm all for it.
Can I turn in a paper without citing all sources?
"No."[1]
1. William Shakespeare, Hamlet , Act III, Scene 1, line 96.

14-Jun-2020 20:42:45

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