• 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.

  • ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net
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    1 minute ago

    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.

    What is that supposed to mean? What QR code? Just any? I’m supposed to find some QR code laying around and scan it? Or will the webpage display a QR and I’m supposed to scan it with my phone using a mirror or something?

  • SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org
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    39 minutes ago

    I think I will just install Ubuntu Touch on my phones in a few months. Feels like it’s just time to abandon ship.

  • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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    21 minutes ago

    Who is still scanning QR codes? I thought after the nambla stuff people loss interest in scanning a weblink.

    • Lumisal@lemmy.world
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      3 minutes ago

      It says scanning for verification.

      In the EU a lot of banking apps offer that.

  • Wispy2891@lemmy.world
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    2 hours 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
  • ryan_@piefed.social
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    3 hours ago

    Surely this would be nearly impossible for visually impaired people, which makes me question the ability for governments to implement this on their websites.

    I know about screen reader software for visual impairment, but to expect a blind person use a separate device with a camera to take a “photo” of a QR code on another screen is beyond comprehension. Well, at least it would be in the normal timeline.

    I guess I’ll have to switch to a dumb phone out of spite now.

  • eekrano@lemmy.world
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    3 hours 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. Although this will stop an autonomous bot in its tracks, it also adds another step to verification. But the problem runs a little deeper than the annoyance of a single additional step.

    I didn’t see what the spec of this new recaptcha is but my first thought is an android emulator and a free google account combined with whatever bot/LLM wants to pass through is probably going to be what happens.

    • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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      3 hours ago

      And as we all know, they’re going to say that not using a Genuine™ Android® Operating System is extremely suspicious.

  • ennof@feddit.org
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    7 hours ago

    “Google’s next-gen reCAPTCHA system could spell trouble for any website that implements it as no de-Googled phone user will care to use it”

    • frongt@lemmy.zip
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      6 hours ago

      That demographic is so small as to be irrelevant to the majority of companies.

    • Dæmon S.@calckey.world
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      6 hours ago

      @ennof@feddit.org @LuminousLuddite@lemmy.world @technology@lemmy.world

      As if it were a matter of caring or wanting/not wanting to use websites… It would be really nice to live in such a world where one could have the luxury of “choosing”. Unfortunately, it’s not this world for many people and many peoples.

      To exemplify this, there are websites I, as a Brazilian, can’t simply choose whether to use or not, because there are government and bureau websites for services through which I’m expected to comply with citizen things I didn’t ask for (as I didn’t ask to be born in this world to begin with). Online services such as “DETRAN” (state-wise transportation bureaus where one must renew one’s driver’s license), which I remember having to click a reCAPTCHA in order to proceed with transportation-related citizen duties. I can’t have the luxury of saying “you know what, I’m not renewing my driver’s license which has become my ID for a plethora of services not even related to driving, which means I’m going ID-less and becoming a legally-indigent person in the eyes of the next cop that requests my ID”.

      Hell, I can’t even choose to have a degoogled phone because our customs (Receita Federal) will likely deny the entry for any “unlicensed device” (i.e. devices not licensed by ANATEL, Brazilian telecommunication agency). And installing a custom ROM in any available device is not without the risk of bricking the device (and losing a monthly minimum wage worth of money spent with said device) especially for someone like me who never installed custom ROMs.

      Again, would be really awesome to live in the world you described where one could afford “caring to use” things…

      • Wispy2891@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        Well the good thing is that now Google enshittified recaptcha and now if the website owner wants to implement it, needs to pay $1 for 1000 verification requests which is crazy expensive for something that as of now it’s easy to pass as a bot than as a human (bots ask the voice verification and ask a LLM to interpret that, pass recaptcha in less than a second. Humans need to click on 25 traffic lights and give up in the process)

  • 9tr6gyp3@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    If you’re a web dev, and you implement this, just know you won’t receive my web traffic. Ill go live with the other robots and we will start our own internet with blackjack and hookers.

  • Zak@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    That means if Google’s verification system gets widely adopted, browsing the web could become a headache.

    Using a phone to scan a QR code in order to access a website on my desktop is a headache even if it has no dependencies in particular.

    • limonfiesta@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Unless it was the website I needed inorder to receive an organ donation, I would just close it.

      I could claim that’s an act of righteous protest, but really I just know that absent my needing a new liver, there’s no website I would ever care enough about to get me to scan a QR code just to keep browsing.

    • Kairos@lemmy.today
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      8 hours ago

      I have, multiple times, had to take a screenshot, send it to another device, and then display that QR code on that device so I can scan it. Nothing about using phones isn’t a headache.