evil captcha for forum registration?

[mclien]

Some question/hint I got via another forum about the registration process here in the forum.
It seems the used caütcha might be a unfortune decission:
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-no-captcha-adtruth-privacy-research-2015-2?IR=T

Can some of you web/security/programmer wizards shed some light on this?
I personally have no real knowledge about this and relay the question, because I DO understand, that this might arise concerns.

Thanks

 

[comradekingu]

Just proof that whatever scripts left running on a "normal" website is enough to track you into reverse turing land.

Indiegogo actually will stop you to solve a captcha, because without running all their junk, you look indistinguishable from a bot.

Right now its triggered by behaviour suggesting it is to prevent DDoS, like loading too many pages too quickly, or skipping through things "without" moving your mouse.

Ironically preventing malice will likely be the evil excuse for the future.

In the war of botnets vs people, it is now botnets vs botnets, and people are still loosing.

 

[TrashyMG]

Captcha is the only reason why this forum doesn't have hundreds of spammers on every single thread.

 

[mclien]

If I understand correctly the concern in the linked articel is not about, if a captcha is able to proof you are human, but google collects way more info than claimed and necessary. So the question is: Is there a alternative registration method and is it reason enought the perhaps change the captcha provider (if that's the correct term).

 

[levi]

I take it this only applies for when you're registering for an account. Just clear your cookies and make sure you don't log in to google and it shouldn't be able to associate that identity with your usual one. The rest of the time, I don't think I'm connected to google here, so they won't be able to see what I'm doing (until I hit 'post reply' and it all goes public that is!)

 

[EvilDragon]

Well, the boards support:

• Use reCAPTCHA
  No extra configuration is required for this CAPTCHA.
  
  
• Use reCAPTCHA (No CAPTCHA)
  http://www.google.com/recaptcha
  
  • Site Key:
  • Secret Key:
• Use Question & Answer CAPTCHA
  Define your questions
  
  
• Use textCAPTCHA
  http://textcaptcha.com/
  
  
• Use Solve Media
  http://www.solvemedia.com/
  
  
• Use KeyCAPTCHA
  https://www.keycaptcha.com/

For now, I just disabled the CAPTCHA - let's first find out whether that's an issue or not.

 

[comradekingu]

The old boards leaked in bots that registered spam-accounts. Seldomly posting, but sitting there with a URL as their description. Brings SEO down a bit.

 

[Binky]

The old boards leaked in bots that registered spam-accounts. Seldomly posting, but sitting there with a URL as their description. Brings SEO down a bit.

I've caught a few of these recently. Mostly advertising a Polish sports equipment shop, of all things!

 

[sulu]

Hello,

I'm the one who asked mclien for a google-free way to register here.
So, now that I'm here, thank you mclien for relaying my request and thank you EvilDragon for making this possible!