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PSA: End Captcha Now

15 points by modzu ↗ HN
I can't use the Internet anymore.

I click the firehydrant, crosswalk, car, streetlight, whatever, it doesn't matter, Google says it's wrong and presents another. And another. And another.

What is going on? I read about a computer vision system that can identify 12,000 streetlights a second.

It occurs to me Captchas are not stopping machines but they are stopping humans. Why?

Because I haven't got my browser logged into a Google or Cloudflare account where they can track my every move?

It absolutely has to stop :(

11 comments

[ 5.5 ms ] story [ 40.4 ms ] thread
the_only_law
Google is so shady when it comes to trying to push you to use their platforms. Ive noticied a few "bugs" in Android as of recent and its maddening.
[deleted]
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cpach
What service is it that you feel you can’t use because of this? Search? Gmail? Something else?
ezekg
I'd guess any site that uses a captcha. I've recently struggled with the same as OP. Captchas have become increasingly harder to solve, even when you solve it correctly, it still fails. I've noticed an uptick in "failed" captchas after switching to Firefox exclusively.
JacobSuperslav
I sometimes get captchas on google(when researching and typing/modyfing queries too fast...), rateyourmusic, aliexpress, from the top of my head. hate those damn traffic lights!
modzu
captchas are incresibly pervasive. if you havent seen them google probably has your dna.
colesantiago
Is there an alternative solution to CAPTCHA's?, some of us would still would like to keep the bots out.
modzu
yes, at the very least there are open source alternatives with vastly better ux, for example securimage
colesantiago
Had a look at this 'securimage' and saw 'exploit' right away and this unfortunately put me right off if bots can bypass this alternative.

If a captcha is unable to do the job of keeping bots away even with 'better ux'. It is no better at securing anything than a wireless car key fob.

modzu
google captcha can also be bypassed trivially. thats the irony. see, ex: busta
dormento
Daily reminder that google's captcha implementations serve to collect data for their image recognition models. The fact that they can also be used to block bots on websites is mostly coincidental. This is also true of previous incarnations of reCAPTCHA.