Google has effectively killed CAPTCHA with its latest iteration, so you no longer have to input anything.
CAPTCHA can be most irritating but they are necessary for verifying whether the user is a human or otherwise. The system has been around for quite a long time. The system has also seen a lot of advances and evolution, as machines improved in reading text. Google’s latest iteration puts an end to CAPTCHA.
Invisible CAPTCHA
The latest development in the test for telling the difference between Computers and humans is the Invisible CAPTCHA. reCaptcha was first acquired by Google in the year 2009. The system was updated in the year 2013 and this resulted in the checkbox ‘I’m not a robot’ seen on various sites. This version of the CAPTCHA was based on its ability to determine whether the user was a person with the help of the clicking style. If the click looked suspicious, a more detailed or complex test would be issued.
However, with the advent of the Invisible CAPTCHA, the technology will recognize and differentiate between a human and a machine or robot by analyzing the browsing behavior.
Why Kill Captcha?
Many website on the Internet force users to decipher nonsensical strings of letters or numbers and then type the same before they can log in for making a purchase. Though the system is intended to verify whether the user is a human or a computer program, it can be irritating to use. The system can now become redundant, with Google announcing its new interface for security, allowing users to skip the Captcha, allowing more subtle and intuitive tests in its place.
Captcha tests used to offer a state of the art technology when it was first created in 1997, but since then several automated algorithms have been created and these are equally capable of solving a Captcha test. This offers a bigger challenge to Captcha in its verification process. The result is that the images or letters have become more complex and it is annoying for users to replicate it.
Advanced Analysis
Google has elaborated in a video that machine learning and improved risk analysis techniques have been used to power such advances. This helps the system in adapting and detecting new threats.
Internet without Friction
When Google first acquired reCaptcha, the aim was to integrate it in the book-scanning venture for digitizing books, as the transcription system of the company was not capable of doing so. According to Shuman Ghosemajumdar, a previous employee at the company, Google believes that if a system is beneficial for the Internet, it is also beneficial for the company. The new system offered better Internet with less friction.
Improving Machine Learning
However, in the process, Google could also be improving its abilities for machine learning through the user behavior. Google is able to read the past behavior or any user when the person is logged in, and this is done in order to offer greater accuracy to the system.