October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month and Google is announcing a slew of new features related to the sign-in process and account usage. New Google Account security protections include requiring JavaScript to be enabled when logging in and removing harmful apps during Security Checkup with Play Protect.
On the Account login page, Google runs a risk assessment that only allows the "sign-in if nothing looks suspicious." This analysis to protect against phishing requires that JavaScript be enabled, with Google noting that only .1% of users have it disabled. If that is the case, you will be prompted to enable it before signing in.
Chances are, JavaScript is already enabled in your browser; it helps power lots of the websites people use everyday. But, because it may save bandwidth or help pages load more quickly, a tiny minority of our users (0.1%) choose to keep it off. This might make sense if you are reading static content, but we recommend that you keep Javascript on while signing into your Google Account so we can better protect you
Once users are signed in, the Security Checkup feature now takes into account nefarious applications installed on Android devices, with Google Play Protect leveraged. You might be prompted to uninstall any harmful apps found on your phone, while Google recently beginning to recommend that users removed unused, but logged in devices.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday November 01 2018, @05:17PM (12 children)
That is almost never a problem. Got sick of all those captcha things long ago. I've done the streets and streetsign captcha thing maybe three or four times this year. Almost always, when I see one of those things, I just close the page, and say "The hell with it."
The older captcha things were hell on me anyway. I couldn't see whatever it was that I was supposed to see. A whole bunch of lines and squiggles, and they want to know what number is hidden in there? I got no idea, let me try another - hmmmmm - just lines and squiggles, try another - oh hell, I'll try to find what I was looking for somewhere else. Oh - I tried a couple of those audio alternatives too. Damifino what the noises meant - sounds a little like Robocop, except, I can't make out any words in it.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 01 2018, @07:03PM
"I've done the streets and streetsign captcha thing maybe three or four times this year. Almost always, when I see one of those things, I just close the page, and say "The hell with it."
Would be nice, if the FCC didn't REQUIRE you to use them in their license manager.
Took me a half an hour to keep them from rejecting my modification requests because of the fscking CAPTCHAs
(Score: 5, Insightful) by crafoo on Thursday November 01 2018, @07:33PM (3 children)
The really annoying thing about modern machine learning algorithms is that they require annotated datasets to train properly. How to get? Make everyone do it for you for free.
Google ML team thanks for doing your part.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 01 2018, @09:21PM (2 children)
This is why in the few times I've had to use it - in a VM mind you - I always give slightly dodgy answers.
"Click on everything that is a sign". Okay. Today I'll go for the green parts but not the poles. Maybe one extra block next to the edge of a sign. Or not.
"Click on shop fronts". Always include one that is 50/50 and refuse to click an obvious one.
Yes, let's train their AI. To be an idiot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 01 2018, @09:47PM
It's already in the name: AI="artificial idiocy".
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 01 2018, @10:39PM
I'd like to do that too, but I'm sure they have feedback on most images from cooperative subjects. If you are the only one to have clicked on an image, or not clicked on an image, they just keep on wasting your time until you start answering honestly.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Thursday November 01 2018, @10:01PM
as an interesting side-effect or unintended consequences, certain "video" sites don't get taken down so fast, WHEN they use CAPTCHA before showing the content.
Me thinks the $MEDIA are using robots to spam with DMCA,which as we all know, carries no penalty for misapplication....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 01 2018, @10:37PM (2 children)
What are the audio alternatives? Telephone intercepts from the NSA?
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday November 02 2018, @02:54AM
Recorded cold calls.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday November 02 2018, @02:08PM
Damifino.
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Friday November 02 2018, @09:16AM (2 children)
That is what I have been doing for ages, and for a long while it has been fine, because those sites were generally entertainment, or minor ones I could do without. However now more important sites are doing it.
For example company hiring pages. I am coming across pages where, after I fill in all my details, add my CV, etc... for a job application, the final step before submission is to solve the damn Google recaptcha. So either I do it, or I abandon the effort so far for the job application, and look elsewhere. This decision now affects my ability to apply for jobs.
Even some low-key (i.e. not critical) local government sites have started using the damn recapcha. Currently that isn't a problem as the pages used for are low key and have alternatives, but I can't help but feel it is a trial run, and with time more critical online systems will depend Google having unfettled access.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday November 02 2018, @02:09PM (1 child)
"So either I do it, or I" call the wife to solve it for me.
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Friday November 02 2018, @05:43PM
That's the solution! I need to get a wife! :-D
Although arguably it doesn't solve the issue of Google borgifying the web, just means you personally don't have to deal with it. The problem is still there...