• Google is making it mandatory to have Play Services for its next-generation reCAPTCHA system on Android.

  • Your phone will need to be running Play Services version 25.41.30 or greater when the system asks you to scan a QR code for verification.

  • This hurdle means that de-Googled phones will fail the verification test by default.

  • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    14·
    14 hours ago

    Fuck that. One of the biggest offenders of web scraping and bot traffic wants to force us all to install their spyware just to verify that we’re human when there have already been much simpler ways to do this without that bullshit captcha for years…

    • SethDove@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      17 hours ago

      Sailfish is awesome. It just doesn’t work on any phones that work in north America anymore.

      • blargh513@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        8·
        20 hours ago

        I really hate the idea that any car I buy in the future is going to come stuffed with fucky software that I don’t want. Software defined car my fucking brown asshole.

        I don’t want some old jalopy with a carburetor and crank windows, but there’s so little benefit to the individual for all the shit that I can’t imagine wanting it.

        I do my own repairs and I hate that half the time I need to get my laptop out to reset a thing, clear a code, re-initiate some shit. Pulling the battery cable off used to work for most things, but not anymore and for a long time.

        I bought the car, but they own the software? So if I want do change or repair something, I have to pay them, but if the software shits the bed, I have to pay them? Everything ends with me paying them for something I already paid for.

        Fuck that.

    • dantheclamman@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      20 hours ago

      Big market, but also huge barrier to entry to get a phone ecosystem off the ground. MS, Amazon, Facebook, Mozilla and many others have tried and failed. Apple and Google have huge moats

    • mynameisbob@lemmy.mlEnglish
      3·
      21 hours ago

      monopoly capital tisk tisk tisk… we need to keep the children safe… don’t you care about the children?

  • x00z@lemmy.worldEnglish
    481·
    1 day ago

    A lot of Android bot devices simulate (or even ARE) a full phone with a legit Play Store and other Google services.

    This requirement is enforced vendor lock in. Nothing more.

  • MuteDog@lemmy.worldEnglish
    30·
    1 day ago

    This requirement will kick in the moment the system suspects suspicious activity. At that point, reCAPTCHA will forgo the old image puzzles and require you to scan a QR code with your smartphone to prove you’re human.

    How is this going to work if you’re browsing the internet on your phone??

  • systemglitch@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    1 day ago

    I’ve scanned 4 QR codes in my life. 2 were not what I was told they would be.

    I will never scan a QR code again.

  • skisnow@lemmy.caEnglish
    122·
    1 day ago

    if legit users fail Google’s captcha, then site owners will stop using Google for captcha

  • smeg@infosec.pubEnglish
    13·
    1 day ago

    Embrace

    Extend

    Extinguish <- Google is here with Android as an open platform

  • Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    26·
    1 day ago

    I was wondering how they would screw the new Motorola phones coming out since they couldn’t do the whole “factory operating system has been tampered with” mode of whining and being little bitches.

    Glad to see their engineers came up with another way to fuck us! Thanks google!

  • Wispy2891@lemmy.worldEnglish
    87·
    2 days ago

    This is awesome news for scammers:

    1. Fake page will say “you need to scan this qr code to verify you’re human”
    2. Users normally dismisses this shit, but it has become normal nowadays, take out the phone to scan it
    3. Qr code opens a page on totallynotascam.com that say “you need to install this totally safe APK on your device for verification 😉”
    4. APK passes the new useless developer “verification” as the scammer either used a hacked dev account or just paid $25 with a stolen id + stolen credit card
    5. User see the message “APK verified by Google play protect” and would totally believe the bullshit, giving all the possible permissions to the app
    • redsand@infosec.pubEnglish
      1·
      22 hours ago

      Don’t even need an app. There’s a root LPE almost monthly now most of android takes a month or more to patch. Just need a common exploitable app to handle your link and get your initial shell.

  • zerofk@lemmy.zipEnglish
    50·
    2 days ago

    Wait wait wait. To prove you’re human you have to read something designed for computers to read?

    • JcbAzPx@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      1 day ago

      To be honest, most of what they use now is pretty easy for machines to do. Mostly because they’ve been using the captcha to train ocr and self driving.

        • YeahToast@aussie.zoneEnglish
          1·
          21 hours ago

          And started off with letter identification to help with reading scanned books. For example, place 3 known 'R’s tell users to select all R’s. If majority of people select 4 R’s then that unknown 4th R becomes a known letter