Google's new reCAPTCHA wants you to turn on your camera and show it your hand, so it can identify you more definitively.
https://reclaimthenet.org/googles-new-recaptcha-wants-your-camera-access-and-21-points-of-your-hand
'This is a company whose business runs on gathering and monetizing personal data, now asking to switch on your camera and read your hand.'
@leighelse no website is worth this
@airshipper Banks and government departments, though?
@leighelse increasingly important for govt departments to be accessible by robots 🙃
@leighelse @airshipper there is no "legitimate interest" nor reason for any of that cyberfascist shite!
- Not even "#KYC"!
They'd rather owe us to evidence they act in our interest, ehich they ain't unless the reorganize as a customer-owned cooperative
- And we'd rather see these execs commit ecocide than them trying to fake they ain't sociopaths for even 5 seconds!
My banks already use additional to username and password different types of extra authentication (app or tan generator) without any captcha.
@leighelse
In that case we should start sending letters again.
@airshipper
Jul 1, 2026, 11:21 PM@leighelse <conspiracy>A smokescreen to collect everybody’s fingerprints.</conspiracy>
Jul 2, 2026, 1:54 AM@futzle @leighelse That's what I would do.
@leighelse I read google's reCAPTCHA has always been their user tracking spyware...no surprise they are fine tuning it tbh 🤬.
Jul 1, 2026, 11:29 PM@leighelse
No doubt to be followed in a few months / years by showing your face and turning it / nodding / shaking it / sticking your tongue out / winking / blinking / forming a set expression, supposedly so it can verify it's looking at a real human rather than a video game character (invariably, children have discovered images / videos of game characters can fool some facial scanning age assurance services, and of course governments don't like it... ).
Then, of course, Google will feed all those Captcha images / videos to Gemini for training purposes...
(It'll probably only be a matter of time before at least one LLM model hoovers up enough data about people to form digital clones of them, and maybe even scammers use the digital clones for assorted nefarious purposes including blackmailing / extorting those who've been cloned...
@mittfh @leighelse OFC this is all #Cyberfascism.
- And I hope they didn't get inspired by #Kitboga's #HoneyPot / #Maze for #Scammers!
@mittfh @leighelse People need to NEVER EBER COMPLY!…
Jul 2, 2026, 1:55 AM@leighelse OH HELL NO
Fuck Giggle's reCAPTCHA. No privacy-oriented site should use it. Period.
@leighelse ... so does this mean without a camera you're just locked out? How does that work for folks on desktops, cameraless laptops, etc.?
@miss_rodent As the article notes, there are other options or people whose device lacks a camera.
@leighelse ... you left out the 'for now'?; the article indicates they expect having other options is a temporary state of afairs:
"However, we all know that optional today is rarely optional forever and the older challenges survive partly because the gesture check is still being tested."
@miss_rodent @leighelse To say nothing of people who lack hands.
@leighelse Can probably take your finger prints.
@NickSchwanck @leighelse can FOR SURE take your fingerprints. The Chaos Computer Club demonstrated replicating the German Defense Minister (Ursula Von Der Leyen, now president of the EC) fingerprint from a photo, and that was 10 years ago.
IIRC they challenged her to let them try to unlock her phone, she agreed and it worked.
@leighelse "You appear to be raising your middle finger. That is not the correct hand position. Please try again."
@leighelse https://mastodon.nz/@leighelse/116846434169360710
No problem. Never wanted a monitor with a built-in camera. They can't hack use it without my permission AND I can't turn it on for Google.
@leighelse can we show it images of some random AI generated middle finger?
Jul 2, 2026, 5:35 AM@leighelse this would have been a great april fools joke during the first year of GenAI image generation.
@leighelse I said "Hahaha *no*" and then I clicked to expand from the content warning and I said "Oh wait make that HELL no."
@leighelse inject a video of an animated stick figure as a virtual webcam showing them the middle finger?
Jul 2, 2026, 9:20 AM@leighelse this works
@leighelse time for a 4chan classic: please drink verification can.
@leighelse “You want 21 points off my hand, Google? Have two…”
@leighelse Tricky as my systems do not have a camera
@leighelse
The site itself asks for a recaptcha. Cloudflare one. Lols
@leighelse@mastodon.nz
Hmmm. After due consideration* I have concluded the appropriate response is: Google fuck the hell off.
I only EVER do those things if I cannot avoid it and do need to access whatever it is.
Typical, some of their modern ones were quite fun; based on whose shape is this and go home etc.
*Roughly a nanosecond
@leighelse They can go f themselves
@leighelse My PC doesn't have a camera
I have a USB one somewhere but I haven't used it in over 20 years
@leighelse the algorithm in question is gonna just do this but with hands
@leighelse
Instead of showing Google my entire hand, why don't I give them one finger?
I Never knowingly visit google or any of its products. Never. You can too.
No
oh, i've got a hand gesture for it. not the one they want, where they can grab my fingerprints, but one that expresses my opinion about this.
Jul 2, 2026, 9:17 PM@leighelse It can watch as
I stick my two fingers up at it. Honestly this is going not just to be used to determine if you’re a “real” person, but it’ll be used by Google to improve hands in their video models or something.
@leighelse this shit is getting so far beyond out of control.
@leighelse Hey reCAPTCHA🖕