WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:07.319 to continue watching this video prove that you are a human by clicking on 00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:10.040 every box that contains Aus who are we 00:00:07.319 --> 00:00:16.520 kidding we welcome all viewers organic or robotic here at Techquickie but back 00:00:13.080 --> 00:00:19.480 on topic odds are you've probably seen 00:00:16.520 --> 00:00:24.039 little tests like that scattered around the internet when you're trying to post 00:00:21.400 --> 00:00:30.000 a comment create an account or buy something they're called captas which 00:00:27.199 --> 00:00:35.440 stands for completely automated public Turing tests to tell computers and 00:00:32.119 --> 00:00:37.640 humans apart proving once again that the 00:00:35.440 --> 00:00:44.039 computer science Community continues to struggle with the concept of acronyms 00:00:40.840 --> 00:00:47.360 anyway the irony of using Computing 00:00:44.039 --> 00:00:50.879 techniques to trick other computers 00:00:47.360 --> 00:00:53.359 isn't really new le speak which goes all 00:00:50.879 --> 00:00:59.160 the way back to the early 1980s originated as a method of preventing 00:00:56.160 --> 00:01:02.000 content from being easily searchable and 00:00:59.160 --> 00:01:08.680 to work around obstacles like profanity filters a use that is still common to 00:01:05.199 --> 00:01:12.400 this day but modern capture didn't come 00:01:08.680 --> 00:01:16.159 around until the late 1990s when the 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:19.479 then popular search engine altav Vista 00:01:16.159 --> 00:01:22.240 man I'm old was trying to find a way to 00:01:19.479 --> 00:01:28.960 prevent Bots or automated computer programs from adding tons of spam and 00:01:25.400 --> 00:01:31.360 malicious URLs to their link database 00:01:28.960 --> 00:01:36.520 they wanted to put some kind of barrier in place and approach the problem by 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:43.000 thinking about something that both humans and computers were good at namely 00:01:40.880 --> 00:01:49.200 optical character recognition which you can learn more about here then 00:01:45.960 --> 00:01:51.920 introducing elements that made the task 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:57.200 much more difficult for computers while keeping it fairly easy for humans and 00:01:54.920 --> 00:02:04.039 since computers of the day could only recognize clear easyto read text TT 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:07.360 altavista's Engineers forced the user or 00:02:04.039 --> 00:02:10.479 the bot as it were to read a puzzle with 00:02:07.360 --> 00:02:13.360 distorted misaligned text with stray 00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:20.360 marks in order to submit a URL to the database cool right this form of capture 00:02:17.319 --> 00:02:23.120 continues to be quite popular along with 00:02:20.360 --> 00:02:27.640 audio capture for the visually impaired that in a similar vein typically 00:02:25.440 --> 00:02:34.200 includes spoken letters that are somewhat garbled to defeat autom ated 00:02:30.239 --> 00:02:37.640 sound analysis q 00:02:34.200 --> 00:02:40.840 y26 w you'll see it employed in 00:02:37.640 --> 00:02:42.640 situations ranging from preventing Bots 00:02:40.840 --> 00:02:48.200 from signing up for social media accounts to cut down on spam to 00:02:45.480 --> 00:02:53.000 verification on ticket buying websites to ensure that Bots working for ticket 00:02:50.360 --> 00:02:58.319 scalpers can't snatch up all the tickets to popular events you might even see 00:02:55.640 --> 00:03:04.599 captas more frequently if you're using a VPN service and as many website 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:07.440 administrators are aware that vpns are a 00:03:04.599 --> 00:03:14.200 popular tool that scammers can use to conceal their identities so a request 00:03:10.680 --> 00:03:17.599 from a known VPN IP address is more 00:03:14.200 --> 00:03:19.959 likely to trigger a capture prompt but 00:03:17.599 --> 00:03:26.080 there's a bit more to it than simply presenting the scheming bot with a 00:03:23.040 --> 00:03:28.560 confusing image capture scripts also 00:03:26.080 --> 00:03:34.599 need to be written securely so that the correct answer is isn't available to the 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:37.080 bot through a back door for example some 00:03:34.599 --> 00:03:43.000 capture scripts especially many freely available ones render the text on the 00:03:40.080 --> 00:03:47.959 user's computer instead of on the server and handle the answer in plain text 00:03:45.239 --> 00:03:53.120 meaning that a bot can be written to steal the answer without ever solving 00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:58.879 the puzzle but even if proper security is implemented Bots are also getting a 00:03:56.720 --> 00:04:04.079 lot more sophisticated than they used to be and greater processing power has 00:04:01.760 --> 00:04:09.040 enabled them to use machine learning to get better at solving these kinds of 00:04:06.519 --> 00:04:14.599 captas so everything from image recognition puzzles to trivia questions 00:04:11.799 --> 00:04:20.880 have been employed to stay one step ahead of the spam bot arms race but 00:04:18.160 --> 00:04:27.040 lonus what about those prompts that I've been seeing these days that just say I'm 00:04:24.080 --> 00:04:32.280 not a robot and then I just check a box I mean couldn't a robot do that how does 00:04:29.400 --> 00:04:39.120 that work well this is a pretty cool mechanism from Google called No capture 00:04:36.320 --> 00:04:45.039 it actually tracks your mouse movements right before you check the box humans 00:04:42.520 --> 00:04:50.320 tend to move their mice in Wiggly imperfect ways when they want to point 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:56.840 at something whereas this behavior is usually absent with a bot no capture 00:04:53.880 --> 00:05:02.199 also looks at your IP address and cookie activity to see if it's probably 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:04.639 consistent with a Human Instead of a bot 00:05:02.199 --> 00:05:10.120 and this automation has made it much faster and less frustrating for the user 00:05:07.440 --> 00:05:16.120 increasing its popularity it's generally regarded as reliable which is cool but 00:05:13.440 --> 00:05:20.880 back to that face I made before it has privacy Advocates concerned about how 00:05:18.600 --> 00:05:26.960 much information it's sending to Google and uh how exactly is it being 00:05:24.280 --> 00:05:32.199 used oh that Google but considering how many people 00:05:29.840 --> 00:05:37.280 see an opportunity to make a quick Buck by deploying spam Bots as the internet's 00:05:34.680 --> 00:05:43.479 influence continues to grow it isn't likely we'll see the human verification 00:05:39.520 --> 00:05:45.280 arms race cool down anytime soon I just 00:05:43.479 --> 00:05:50.600 hope that it doesn't reach the point where we have to submit like a DNA 00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:56.600 sample and like a stool sample just to downvote somebody on Reddit TunnelBear 00:05:54.039 --> 00:06:01.400 VPN vpns are great for more than just spammers and scammers by the way they 00:05:58.759 --> 00:06:06.880 are perfect for anyone who wants to use online services and browse the internet 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:11.639 anonymously or to access things that just plain might not be available in 00:06:09.039 --> 00:06:18.080 their country tunnel bear has easy to use apps for iOS Android PC and Mac they 00:06:15.840 --> 00:06:23.919 also have a Chrome extension and it's so easy to use all you do is install it 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:27.440 pick the country that you wish to be 00:06:23.919 --> 00:06:29.400 from and press a button when you do that 00:06:27.440 --> 00:06:34.400 two things happen one your connection gets get encrypted with AES 256-bit 00:06:31.840 --> 00:06:39.800 encryption and two your public IP address gets switched so you show up as 00:06:37.199 --> 00:06:46.319 though you are in a different country and tunnel bear lets you bypass all the 00:06:41.960 --> 00:06:49.120 BS that often comes with VPN use no DNS 00:06:46.319 --> 00:06:53.840 ports blah blah blah none of that stuff they've also got a top rated privacy 00:06:50.759 --> 00:06:56.680 policy and do not log user activity so 00:06:53.840 --> 00:07:01.440 try it out for nothing 500 megabytes free data no credit card required and 00:06:59.120 --> 00:07:06.720 when you go wow this is great I can watch that soccer game or I can buy that 00:07:04.599 --> 00:07:10.639 thing or whatever you can get an unlimited plan and save 10% by going to 00:07:09.240 --> 00:07:15.160 Tunnel bear.com Linus so thanks for watching guys like 00:07:13.319 --> 00:07:18.840 dislike leave a comment if you have a suggestion for a future video most of 00:07:17.319 --> 00:07:23.160 the suggestions are terrible but every once in a while a gem does come in so uh 00:07:21.280 --> 00:07:28.759 kudos for that and as always don't forget to subscribe for more videos just 00:07:25.319 --> 00:07:28.759 like this one