2 ms·

Why would it be illegal? Being able to access a website (be it Twitter, Hacker News, or your hometown newspaper) is a privilege, not a right.

by 1f60c 6y ago

DarkWiiPlayer 6y ago
My comment was poorly phrased. My point is that this can quickly lead to legal problems, when such a captcha restricts your access to something you do have a legal right to. Say I buy a new phone and it stops working after 3 weeks. I want to contact the seller, but they only have a web contact form and I fail to get past the captcha. This is already getting very close to being a huge legal problem, and the only reason why it's probably not that bad is that technically that website is supposed to give at least a contact address so I could just send them a letter which, while hugely inconvenient, is legally still a good enough way for me to contact them. I'm sure if you spend a while longer you could find a few cases where the problem is even worse (also considering more than just one legal system). So what I should have said: Using this technology to block users from the wrong endpoints could end up being illegal. For context: I'm talking German laws here.
- judge2020 6y ago
  It's definitely a problem regarding government sites - the UK even has a page advising their own government agencies to not rely on them unless absolutely necessary[0]. US government sites have simply resorted to putting everything behind a login wall and verifying identity, such as is the case for ssa.gov and healthcare.gov, or just not caring and letting spammers do whatever they'd like (typical for local-level governments). 0: https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/technology/using-captchas https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/technology/using-captchas
DanBC 6y ago
Disability discrimination laws have been in place for decades now.
dafoex 6y ago
GDPR could be a concern if you are not able to opt out of automated processing. Deciding if you're a spambot or not is a huge decision for a robot to make. To be fair, any captcha would have this trouble, but an entirely invisible one would not be able to be questioned

Why would it be illegal? Being able to access a website (be it Twitter, Hacker News, or your hometown newspaper) is a privilege, not a right.

by 1f60c 6y ago

Why would it be illegal? Being able to access a website (be it Twitter, Hacker News, or your hometown newspaper) is a privilege, not a right.

DarkWiiPlayer 6y ago

My comment was poorly phrased. My point is that this can quickly lead to legal problems, when such a captcha restricts your access to something you do have a legal right to. Say I buy a new phone and it stops working after 3 weeks. I want to contact the seller, but they only have a web contact form and I fail to get past the captcha. This is already getting very close to being a huge legal problem, and the only reason why it's probably not that bad is that technically that website is supposed to give at least a contact address so I could just send them a letter which, while hugely inconvenient, is legally still a good enough way for me to contact them. I'm sure if you spend a while longer you could find a few cases where the problem is even worse (also considering more than just one legal system). So what I should have said: Using this technology to block users from the wrong endpoints could end up being illegal. For context: I'm talking German laws here.

judge2020 6y ago
It's definitely a problem regarding government sites - the UK even has a page advising their own government agencies to not rely on them unless absolutely necessary[0]. US government sites have simply resorted to putting everything behind a login wall and verifying identity, such as is the case for ssa.gov and healthcare.gov, or just not caring and letting spammers do whatever they'd like (typical for local-level governments). 0: https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/technology/using-captchas https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/technology/using-captchas

DanBC 6y ago

Disability discrimination laws have been in place for decades now.

dafoex 6y ago

GDPR could be a concern if you are not able to opt out of automated processing. Deciding if you're a spambot or not is a huge decision for a robot to make. To be fair, any captcha would have this trouble, but an entirely invisible one would not be able to be questioned