JavaScript is now required to sign in to Google
When I was at Google I started both the login risk analysis project and the Javascript-based bot detection framework they&#x27;re now enforcing, so it&#x27;s a pity to see so many angry comments. Maybe a bit of background will make it seem more reasonable.<p>Firstly, this isn&#x27;t some weird ploy to boost ad revenue. This is the login page - users are typing in a long term stable identifier already! The Javascripts they are requiring here are designed to detect <i>tools</i>, not people. All mass account hijacking attacks rely on bots that either emulate or automate web browsers, and Google has a technology that has proven quite effective at detecting these tools. There&#x27;s a little bit of info on how it works scattered around the internet, but none of the explanations are even remotely complete, and they&#x27;re all years old now too. Suffice it to say: no JS = no bot signals.<p>Google had the ability to enforce a JS-required rule on login at least 6 years ago and never used it until now. Without a doubt, it&#x27;s being enforced for the first time due to some large account hijacking attack that has proven impossible to stop any other way. After so many years of bending over backwards to keep support for JS blocking users alive, it&#x27;s presumably now become the weakest link in the digital Maginot line surrounding their network.<p>For the people asking for the risk analysis to be disable-able: you used to be able to do that by enabling two-factor authentication. You can&#x27;t roll back your account to just username and password security though: it&#x27;s worth remembering that account hijacks are about more than just the immediate victim. When an account is taken over it&#x27;s abused and that abuse creates more victims. Perhaps the account is used to send phishing mails to your contacts, or financial scams, or perhaps it&#x27;s used to just do normal spamming which can - at enough volume - cause Gmail IPs to get blocked by third party spam filters, and user&#x27;s emails to get bounced even if their own account is entirely secure. The risk analysis is mostly about securing people&#x27;s accounts, but it&#x27;s also about securing the products more generally too.