Google’s new reCAPTCHA has a dark side
I&#x27;m... actually struggling to see what this dark side is. The data is collected under a non-reuse agreement. It&#x27;s specifically there to make a good captcha. There are other captcha vendors, and they don&#x27;t make that promise (and I can think of at least one who admits they collect and resell data via captcha).<p>So the downside here is that no one has a credible way to compete with Google? Maybe because their Google cookie actually is a pretty good indicator of humanity?<p>That&#x27;s nonsense. Tons of people do. There&#x27;s LOADS of great research on captcha that isn&#x27;t implemented by any vendor. The roadblock is that NO ONE WANTS TO, because it&#x27;s a thankless, unprofitable task that puts you dead in the crosshairs of a ton of very organized people who will devote huge resources to circumventing or breaking your offering.<p>&quot;A land grab,&quot; sure. Of a nuclear wasteland covered in small arms battles.