'I'm Not A Robot' - Why Do Websites Use This?

20th Mar 2017

'I'm Not A Robot' - Why Do Websites Use This?

You're online, filling out an order or a form on a website. You enter all your details and hit next, only to be booted back to the top of the form because there's an incomplete field. You've checked the details, they're all correct, only to find that you haven't either filled out or ticked a box to prove to said website that you're a human being. Cue frustration and at least three attempts to make out the most obscurely illegible combination of letters and numbers. "Yes I would like another phrase. No I can't read that one either". And repeat.

But, web fans, rejoice as CAPTCHA or Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart - bet you didn't know that's what it stood for - could be gone for good.

 

Why? Google being Google, have invented an invisible version which can determine whether you're a human or a robot based upon your browsing patterns. Not sure if that's a) really, really clever or b) a little unsettling.

 

You could argue that it was a necessary evil, protecting us from cyber attacks and overloading websites with death by spambot but we're glad that we might soon see the last of CAPTCHA.

 

You can read more about the ins and outs of CAPTCHA, reCAPTCHA, No CAPTCHA here but essentially Google's new invisible mechanism removes this box ticking (pun intended) exercise and will use your historical data to work out if you're real or robot.

 

User-friendly development or another means for the mighty Google to keep tabs on us, you decide. Either way, it's progress.



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