The Lab · 2026-05-09 00:24:48 · Hacker News
Users of de-googled Android operating systems are reporting that Google's reCAPTCHA service has stopped functioning properly, potentially blocking access to websites that depend on the anti-bot verification system. The issue, flagged in discussions on Hacker News, appears to affect custom Android distributions that ope...
The Lab · 2026-05-10 05:01:45 · Techmeme Echo RSS
Google's next-generation reCAPTCHA system appears to require Google Play Services for Android verification, effectively blocking users of de-Googled devices from passing CAPTCHA challenges while raising significant surveillance and privacy concerns. The integration means that Android users running privacy-focused opera...
The Lab · 2026-05-10 11:01:44 · Mastodon:mastodon.social:#privacy
A new reCAPTCHA implementation is effectively locking Android users without Google Play Services out of websites that deploy the verification system, raising fresh concerns about platform coercion and web accessibility. The development, reported by Dutch tech publication Tweakers, centers on a reCAPTCHA check that fail...
The Lab · 2026-05-10 15:31:44 · Mastodon:mastodon.social:#privacy
A new analysis from PrivateCaptcha alleges that Google Cloud Fraud Defence (CFD) is essentially Web Environment Integrity (WEI) repackaged under a different name. WEI, Google's controversial browser attestation proposal, faced intense pushback from privacy advocates and web standards communities in 2023 over concerns i...