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With the new reCAPTCHA this is going to happen because most human visitors will actually be unable to pass the CAPTCHA. It will be interesting to see whether th

With the new reCAPTCHA this is going to happen because most human visitors will actually be unable to pass the CAPTCHA. It will be interesting to see whether this makes websites ditch reCAPTCHA or whether they literally just don't care about having customers, an attitude that seems to be getting more and more common every day.

g-b-r 5mo ago
One problem with these things is that businesses have minimal visibility on the amount of users they lose. On the opposite, if they see reports of many visitors not completing the captcha, they're likely to think "Wow so many bots!!! This defense nowadays is indispensable..!". Sometimes you need to pass a captcha even to contact them (if you want to tell them that you can't pass their captcha).
- jbvlkt 5mo ago
  I wanted to give money to charity and they have whole form protected by recaptcha. So I would have to allow all my personal information and amount donated sent to google (and agree with google terms for data processing). I have contacted them but they did not understand why this is problem they just wanted to protect themself against bots. IMHO unless those things are not disallowed by antitrust laws we have lost.
  - vanviegen 5mo ago
    We wouldn't want bots throwing money at us!
    - sfilmeyer 5mo ago
      I suspect this is a real problem for charities, though. If those bots are using stolen credit cards, the "donations" are going to cost the charities money after they pay extra fees to the credit card processors. Nonprofits are sometimes used to test stolen credit cards before making more profitable fraudulent transactions, so there's a real risk of it costing them money if they get rid of the captcha but don't replace it with something sufficiently high quality, even after accounting for the occasional lost donation.
      - g-b-r 5mo ago
        Why would they pay extra fees?
        sfilmeyer 5mo ago
        Merchants often pay a chargeback fee on top of refunding the main charge. Additionally, merchants with lots of fraud or other chargeback issues are likely to be dropped by payment processors or see their general fees with payment processors get more expensive.
- bar000n 5mo ago
  i say technofeudalism, not sure i know what i'm writing about though
- chadgpt2 5mo ago
  Luckily the marketplace of money will ensure that businesses who block their customers shrink and businesses who don't block their customers grow.
papercruncher 5mo ago
I have been unable to give my money to Home Depot, REI and a growing list of online retailers because they use Akamai EdgeSuite, which just assumes I am a bot and 403s on protected API calls. This happens consistently on any IP and any browser on my Linux desktop/laptop.
- drew870mitchell 5mo ago
  Same, i'm doing a kitchen reno and gave up on Home Depot because of this
- spystath 5mo ago
  There are not enough words to describe how much I hate Akamai EdgeSuite. So many random validation loops and 403s across different physical computers, different operating systems, different connections and even countries. A couple of services I need use it and it's 30% I'll make it past their stupid "protection".
- userbinator 5mo ago
  Home Depot at least has a physical presence, which you can go and directly give some much-needed feedback to.
  - tardedmeme 5mo ago
    It has a zero percent chance of reaching anyone who can do anything about it. You could try handwriting and posting a letter to their CEO. I think that sometimes works. Probably not very often but there are more than zero CEOs who read those letters.
    - komali2 5mo ago
      REI is allegedly a co-op, maybe there's a committee or something it could be presented to?
      - tardedmeme 5mo ago
raincole 5mo ago
> most human visitors will actually be unable to pass the CAPTCHA Most human visitors will never ever notice the change. reCAPTCHA is completely invisible for most human visitors because they are allowed to pass just by fingerprint. It's not like an average user is going to have to scan a QR code every time they visit a site via web browser. If it were like this then it would be a non-issue because no sane website would adopt this system. But it isn't.
- pixel_popping 5mo ago
  This is not true, maybe in the US, but in many countries you get captchas all the time with residential connection and also in public places all the time, internet cafe, airports, cafe wifis and so, they'll at least get it once, that way there is a permanent fingerprint correlation with real identity, I can bet that EVERYBODY will get it at some point so Google and other people on board with this atrocity (webmasters are also accomplice) can finish-up the master plan.
sandworm101 5mo ago
>> whether they literally just don't care about having customers So every government website. Every website where people simply have no choice (DMV) or where failure to login results in them not claiming the money/benefits they are due (all tax websites). And every website handling post-sale complaints (Airlines, insurance).
sumeno 5mo ago
> most human visitors will actually be unable to pass the CAPTCHA Most human visitors will pull out their smartphone and just do it without giving it much thought.

g-b-r 5mo ago

One problem with these things is that businesses have minimal visibility on the amount of users they lose. On the opposite, if they see reports of many visitors not completing the captcha, they're likely to think "Wow so many bots!!! This defense nowadays is indispensable..!". Sometimes you need to pass a captcha even to contact them (if you want to tell them that you can't pass their captcha).

jbvlkt 5mo ago
I wanted to give money to charity and they have whole form protected by recaptcha. So I would have to allow all my personal information and amount donated sent to google (and agree with google terms for data processing). I have contacted them but they did not understand why this is problem they just wanted to protect themself against bots. IMHO unless those things are not disallowed by antitrust laws we have lost.
- vanviegen 5mo ago
  We wouldn't want bots throwing money at us!
  - sfilmeyer 5mo ago
    I suspect this is a real problem for charities, though. If those bots are using stolen credit cards, the "donations" are going to cost the charities money after they pay extra fees to the credit card processors. Nonprofits are sometimes used to test stolen credit cards before making more profitable fraudulent transactions, so there's a real risk of it costing them money if they get rid of the captcha but don't replace it with something sufficiently high quality, even after accounting for the occasional lost donation.
    - g-b-r 5mo ago
      Why would they pay extra fees?
      - sfilmeyer 5mo ago
        Merchants often pay a chargeback fee on top of refunding the main charge. Additionally, merchants with lots of fraud or other chargeback issues are likely to be dropped by payment processors or see their general fees with payment processors get more expensive.
bar000n 5mo ago
i say technofeudalism, not sure i know what i'm writing about though
chadgpt2 5mo ago
Luckily the marketplace of money will ensure that businesses who block their customers shrink and businesses who don't block their customers grow.

papercruncher 5mo ago

I have been unable to give my money to Home Depot, REI and a growing list of online retailers because they use Akamai EdgeSuite, which just assumes I am a bot and 403s on protected API calls. This happens consistently on any IP and any browser on my Linux desktop/laptop.

drew870mitchell 5mo ago
Same, i'm doing a kitchen reno and gave up on Home Depot because of this
spystath 5mo ago
There are not enough words to describe how much I hate Akamai EdgeSuite. So many random validation loops and 403s across different physical computers, different operating systems, different connections and even countries. A couple of services I need use it and it's 30% I'll make it past their stupid "protection".
userbinator 5mo ago
Home Depot at least has a physical presence, which you can go and directly give some much-needed feedback to.
- tardedmeme 5mo ago
  It has a zero percent chance of reaching anyone who can do anything about it. You could try handwriting and posting a letter to their CEO. I think that sometimes works. Probably not very often but there are more than zero CEOs who read those letters.
  - komali2 5mo ago
    REI is allegedly a co-op, maybe there's a committee or something it could be presented to?
    - tardedmeme 5mo ago

raincole 5mo ago

> most human visitors will actually be unable to pass the CAPTCHA Most human visitors will never ever notice the change. reCAPTCHA is completely invisible for most human visitors because they are allowed to pass just by fingerprint. It's not like an average user is going to have to scan a QR code every time they visit a site via web browser. If it were like this then it would be a non-issue because no sane website would adopt this system. But it isn't.

pixel_popping 5mo ago
This is not true, maybe in the US, but in many countries you get captchas all the time with residential connection and also in public places all the time, internet cafe, airports, cafe wifis and so, they'll at least get it once, that way there is a permanent fingerprint correlation with real identity, I can bet that EVERYBODY will get it at some point so Google and other people on board with this atrocity (webmasters are also accomplice) can finish-up the master plan.

sandworm101 5mo ago

>> whether they literally just don't care about having customers So every government website. Every website where people simply have no choice (DMV) or where failure to login results in them not claiming the money/benefits they are due (all tax websites). And every website handling post-sale complaints (Airlines, insurance).

sumeno 5mo ago

> most human visitors will actually be unable to pass the CAPTCHA Most human visitors will pull out their smartphone and just do it without giving it much thought.