BERLIN: In a race against time, you quickly load a website to purchase a pair of concert tickets before they get sold out. After selecting seats, all you need to do is enter your credit card info. Then the CAPTCHA appears the hard-to-read series of letters and numbers that lets the site know you are not a robot.
So the next time you buy something online you might not have to read distorted text in a box. Google is getting rid of that filter, known as CAPTCHA.
Now all you have to do to prove you’re human is check a box that says “I’m not a robot.” This latest evolution may go too far for some; privacy-conscious users won’t appreciate the reminder that Google can learn—or already knows—so much about them based only on simple clues they reveal in their online actions.
The new interface uses advanced analysis to spot robots. It monitors a user’s activity before, during and after the box is checked to determine if that user is a human.
“But the new system is not entirely fool proof. If the technology is still not able to ensure that a user is human, it will look for more clues by putting users through more “security checkpoints,” including distorted text.
For smartphone and tablet users, Google hasn’t simplified its CAPTCHA to a single click. Instead, it will show users a collection of images and ask them to make distinctions that might be tough for bots. For instance, it might display a picture of a cat and ask the user to tap the images that match it among eight photos of other cats, dogs, gerbils and leaves.
