Security Captcha

[jcole]

I am trying to send a private message on here and keep getting a "Captcha" page. Is this new on here or is something wrong here?

[Honky Tonk]

I am trying to send a private message on here and keep getting a "Captcha" page. Is this new on here or is something wrong here?

It's been going on for a couple of weeks now. Apparently some new login and posting security measures have been put in place.

[jcole]

Thanks; the weird thing is that when I click "I am not a robot" it automatically goes back to my profile but I don't think it sends my PM.

It's been going on for a couple of weeks now. Apparently some new login and posting security measures have been put in place.

[Lowell]

We are sorry for the inconvenience but allow us to explain why. [And why we should all press Congress to pass legislation to both fight and penalize these outlaws described below who cause so much cost to our economy.]

Consequently you may face random "security checks" to prove you are human.

Issue: Two or three weeks we sustained a large scale spambot assault. Bogus new member registrations were coming in at 20 an hour and bogus contact messages were flooding us at up to one hundred an hour. This caused us to switch off new member registration and limit the contact form to members only until we could beat off the attack.

Cause: Increasing powerful bot programs, some now AI-driven, are blowing past human verification checks, even traditional scrambled letter Captcha codes.

Actions: We have subscribed CloudFlare, a server traffic filtering service, that spots and blocks most, but not all, spam traffic and allows internet address blocking services. Consequently we have blocked all traffic from Eastern Europe, South Asia and China from which we were receiving large amounts of traffic but, as you know, none of it participating on the forum. This has greatly reduced our spam traffic to where we have been able to turn back on registrations and the contact form to all. But we're out $20 a month for the service.

We have also returned to using Google's "I am not a Robot" for human verification but even that may be slightly compromised or the remaining attackers are utilizing real humans in low wage counties to break through. Those that get through tend to stumble on the last hurdle we employ which asks: "Tell something special about Detroit that let's us know you are not a robot trying to create a fake account. For instance a Detroit place, Detroit celebrity, Detroit food, Detroit institution, Detroit history... "

Conclusion: We always are looking for better solutions in this war so we ask for your patience and understanding. Thank you.

[Jimaz]

Thanks for the update. Please let us know whenever you win this battle in the war.

[Honky Tonk]

Thanks; the weird thing is that when I click "I am not a robot" it automatically goes back to my profile but I don't think it sends my PM.

Maybe you really ARE a robot!

[Meddle]

What should be outlawed is any use of any service from G which is known spyware. They track everything anyone does with the express intent of gathering and selling information.

[jcole]

Maybe you really ARE a robot!

Man, they really ARE getting good at AI!

[jcole]

Thanks for the update, Lowell, I was somewhat confused because it was the first time I ran into it on here And the page I landed on was asking me to run malware scans on my computer. I did it just to be on the safe side and have nothing infection-wise

[Honky Tonk]

What should be outlawed is any use of any service from G which is known spyware. They track everything anyone does with the express intent of gathering and selling information.

That's been going on for years, before the internet and before Google. Newspapers sold subscriber information to other interested parties. You order a magazine subscription and three other "trial subscriptions" show up. Make a donation to the Biafrin Baby Charity, and other charities show up in your mailbox. Now with all things being electronic and instantaneous, a lot more ground gets covered more quickly.

[Meddle]

... And the page I live in the van was asking me ...

Huh?


.............

[Meddle]

Now with all things being electronic and instantaneous, a lot more ground gets covered more quickly.

G is FAR more insidious than that.

G has the ability to know exactly where you are every moment of the day if you don't take steps to prevent them from being able to.

They know what you spend, where and which bank it comes from. They know what you use, what you drive, what you eat and who you associate with.

Websites that use their tracking tools like Captcha and Analytics only enable them further.

[jcole]

Damn, that wasn't supposed to get out...

Huh?


.............

[jcole]

Huh?


.............

It is supposed to be "and the page I landed on". I was doing voice to text on my Ipad and I didn't edit.

[jcole]

That's been going on for years, before the internet and before Google. Newspapers sold subscriber information to other interested parties. You order a magazine subscription and three other "trial subscriptions" show up. Make a donation to the Biafrin Baby Charity, and other charities show up in your mailbox. Now with all things being electronic and instantaneous, a lot more ground gets covered more quickly.

Not only that, but those phone calls you used to get trying to give you a vacation to Orlando or the Bahamas if you will only sit through a vacuum cleaner demonstration? You weren't randomly picked from a phone book. All those magazine scrips, donations, etc got you put into a book that was in address order and sold to companies who wanted to target geographic areas,.

[Honky Tonk]

G is FAR more insidious than that.

G has the ability to know exactly where you are every moment of the day if you don't take steps to prevent them from being able to.

They know what you spend, where and which bank it comes from. They know what you use, what you drive, what you eat and who you associate with.

Websites that use their tracking tools like Captcha and Analytics only enable them further.

I'm very familiar how all that works. But to be fair, Google isn't working alone. It's like the old Monkee's song "It's a little bit me, and a little bit you, too". Is the tracking on your phone on? Do you use plastic instead of cash? Do you allow third party cookies when you visit websites? [[yes, they're only making your website visit experience "better") Google is free for the consumer, but you can't run an operation like that on charity. They make up the deficit by providing businesses with leads that, hopefully, will then lead to sales. Ever notice how sales sites you've been to appear on the DY sidebars? [[Lowell in 3, 2, 1...) It's how the world operates these days. Until the implants come along. You know, in case of emergencies, it allows "us" to help YOU.

[Honky Tonk]

"I am not a robot, I am a man!"

[Meddle]

Ever notice how sales sites you've been to appear on the DY sidebars?

No, because I block all of that.

[Honky Tonk]

It is supposed to be "and the page I landed on". I was doing voice to text on my Ipad and I didn't edit.

Ipad has trouble interpreting robot voices.

[Meddle]

I was doing voice to text on my Ipad and I didn't edit.

It seems to be that people have no concept at all about privacy and how intrusive these companies truly are:

"Facebook has become the latest tech giant to face scrutiny over its handling of users’ data, following a report that said the social media giant collected audio data and recordings from its users and transcribed it using third-party contractors."

"Amazon saw the initial round of flak for allowing contractors to manually review Alexa recordings without express user permission, forcing the company to add an opt-out to its Echo devices. Google also faced heat for allowing human review of audio data, along with Apple, which used contractors to listen to seemingly private Siri recordings. Microsoft also listened to some Skype calls made through the company’s app translation feature."

https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/13/fa...ut-permission/

It's no wonder Identity Theft is so rampant.

There's another story out today about Biometrics being hacked and data on millions of fingerprints stolen.

[Jimaz]

From Amazon workers eavesdrop on your talks with Alexa:

It's a reminder that artificial intelligence, a technology that lets computer programs learn, is often improved by human intervention.

Wait a minute. Doesn't that contradict the very meaning of "artificial intelligence"? Are they just dumbing down the definition of the term to the point that they can use it to sell what's neither artificial nor intelligent?

[JFarmer]

G is FAR more insidious than that.

G has the ability to know exactly where you are every moment of the day if you don't take steps to prevent them from being able to.

They know what you spend, where and which bank it comes from. They know what you use, what you drive, what you eat and who you associate with.

Websites that use their tracking tools like Captcha and Analytics only enable them further.

They see you when you're sleeping. They know when your awake....

[Jimaz]

Tom Scott talks about the history of captcha: I'm Not A Robot. You can skip the ad at 5:10.

[Jimaz]

I was musing about clever ways to deal with bots and I remembered the Ship in a Bottle episode from Star Trek Next Generation.

If each of us replaced ourselves with a simulation then quietly snuck out the back door to a secret duplicate DetroitYES! then the bots could be left behind attacking the old DetroitYES! to their hearts content. Everybotty's happy!

Hey, dreams are free.

[Jimaz]

DetroitYES! has slowed down significantly recently.

I doubt it's just me because there have been very few posts by others.

Is it the bots?

Is there anything we users can do to help, like squirt some Cheese Whiz into those little bot ears and set a match to it?