562
Google's next-gen reCAPTCHA system could spell trouble for de-Googled phones
(www.androidauthority.com)
this post was submitted on 07 May 2026
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Thanks for checking. That clarifies things a lot.
I guess we're fucked. reCaptcha is not used for visiting websites but for registering or submitting form. I can think of couple of cases where I'm required to complete captcha for online shopping or, ever worse, for work. Step by step they will force us all to either use approved devices or be locked out of big parts of the internet.
This is of course thanks to all the people shitting on Firefox over the years and saying that Chrome is just better and that there's nothing wrong with giving Google control over the web. So yeah, thanks.
I had unsolvable captcha for Github once. Fuck ne, I guess. I just wanted to contribute something, but whatever.
To quote a song about a "Fairytale of Doom":
I try to stay optimistic that this won't be tenable. Giving in to despair makes it harder to muster the will to resist. But I won't deny it's getting tougher.
No it's not thanks to those people. Blaming individuals for not stopping what a much bigger, infinitely more resourced, organized actor has been/is doing to maximize profit is shifting the material responsibiltiy from the actor with real power to the actors without. It's like the personal carbon footprint oil&gas came up with to shift responsibility for climate pollution from themselves to individuals. Or plastic and recycling. It feels good to lay blame on those people who did something we did not but it doesn't help change anything material beyond that. Divides us into camps which prevents us from organizing against the profit-driven culprits.
No, it's absolutely not like oil & gas. Average person has very little impact on the energy policy of their country but has huge impact on the browser they are using. And I'm not talking about the ignorant people using the default browser without understanding the difference between Chrome and Google. I'm talking about all the technically literate people that should known better but chose to use Chrome because it's slightly more convenient. The people that attack Mozilla for not being able to compete with Google with fraction of their resources. When the only way to browse the web is with Google account I will definitely remember those people.
The technically lirerate people aren't exempt from the power dynamics created by the vast market share of Chrome and Google, created and reinforced by Google. Even if they/we have some more freedom to maneuver. We still only test our web app features on Chromium because there's limited time for testing, if any, and we can't convince product that making sure the feature works, or fixing bugs on a 2-3% browser is priority. If all the developers in the world used Firefox, it would still not change this power dynamic.
That's exactly the problem. If all the people that should know better promoted Firefox in stead of shitting on Mozilla it would not be 2-3% browser. Linux is hitting 5% market share and it's way more complicated to switch OS than a browser. It doesn't make sense that even less people user Firefox. Of course it's just my opinion but I believe that consistent effort from the community to warn people about Chrome and promote Firefox would help it keep sufficient market share to stay relevant. Instead, even here on lemmy, people love to complain about Mozilla and promote other browsers. So yeah, great job everyone.
I am shocked constantly by the number to tech-savvy people in my circle that still use chrome... Like, they complain that ublock origin "died" and I can't help but stare slack-jawed at them...