Google updates CAPTCHA to kill annoying security check box

By Matthew Dunn

news.com.au·

14 Mar, 2017 12:33 AM2 mins to read

Say goodbye to this annoying feature on Google.

You know that annoying security check box that requires you to type a barely legible phrase in order to prove you're not a robot?

Well, it is set to become a thing of the past, with Google updating CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart).

The latest iteration will be an invisible system that will determine whether a website visitor is a human or bot by discreetly monitoring browsing patterns.

Google first used Captcha back in 2009 in an attempt to stop cyber attacks in which bots overload a website with traffic.

The problem was the initial software left internet users furious because they were unable to decipher the characters needed to advance.

The worst CAPTCHA I’ve ever seen.

CTA: Search

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/CAtolMStjJ
— R🍩B BETTIS (@robbettis) March 7, 2017

Okay, is this a rorschach test or what?#captcha pic.twitter.com/sSGXAlnBFE
— Giovanni (@GioGioME) March 2, 2017

In 2013, Google updated the software to validate a user by analysing their clicking style in the "I'm not a robot" checkbox currently used across the internet.

If the click seemed dubious, a more elaborate test would be required to ensure the user was human.

The new version promises to remove the need for box-ticking entirely, by monitoring interaction with the website and any past data Google holds on the user.

While this will be a reason for celebration across the globe, it begs the question on how Google will continue to preserve history - as the tech giant used CAPTCHA to help digitalise decades of old texts that scanning programs struggle to decipher.

By getting internet users to decipher scanned texts mistranslated by auto-digitising programs, internet users digitised 20 years worth of New York Times back issues in months and within one year, the equivalent of 17,600 books had been decoded.