I would assume this was trying to deliver malware if I ever saw it
this post was submitted on 19 May 2026
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Privacy
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Probably still is. Scan it and let us know if you get malware.
It's goes to recapt cha.net/qr/mMs9S9g8
(Space addes to break the link.)
It'll certainly cause more people to get malware by normalizing people to scan QR codes on a whim without thinking
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It arguably is malware.
reCAPTCHA protects. your privacy and does not share your details with this website or app.
We foxes promise not to let any predators into the henhouse.
They said it wasn't shared with the website. They didn't say it wasn't shared with anyone at all.
Reminds me of those privacy policies. "We don't sell your data!" in the big type. When you dig more into the fine print... they don't! But they do "share it within their partner family of companies". And then THOSE companies sell it. Or sometimes, sell inferences made from it, even if not sell the data.
Yeah, they're just sharing your info with their 1000+ "legitimate interest" partners. Nothing sketchy about that, no sir.
A some recently website someone shared showed, there are some bits of data you automatically share with websites without them asking.
Did I just have a stroke, or is this comment incomprehensible to everyone else too?
Sorry, I was like half asleep. I can’t find it, there was a website I saw shared somewhere on Lemmy that showed you all the info you automatically shared when visiting a website and it pointed out stuff that they collected without even asking for it. The implication is that your device gives websites data involuntarily; the website wasn’t asking for it.
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Ah yes, my very real human ability of scanning QR codes. Truly an inherent characteristic of humanity.
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Any service implementing this shit will be on my list of never using it again. Even if my bank do such shit I'll be moving to another one. Zero tolerancy. This is beyond the limits.
I agree, and this is strictly because Google wants to kill forks like Graphene OS. Anybody who implements this is going to get their tab immediately closed on my browser and I'm never going back. I will have zero tolerance for this.
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It's easy to say this now. But what if, in a few years, 90% of websites and service providers use this?
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Prove I'm human? Sure... [closes tab]
I don't have a smartphone and I keep running into more and more of these QR codes. If I, as a citizen, am required to get a smartphone for these QR codes, to do citizen-like things, then it should be a utility and prices for hardware and services should come way down.
You get by without a smartphone? I was really late to get one but you just can't function in today's society without one where I'm at. In the Heart of Darkness here.
You can function in today's society just fine, it's just less convenient.
But the problem here is not only that you need a smartphone to begin with, but also one specifically from either Google or Apple. Having something else (like a phone with Sailfish or GrapheneOS or any other custom rom) also doesn't work.
I am switching to graphene OS first chance I get, it should be this summer, damn the consequences.
I lived most of my life without any type of cell phone let alone a smart one. I'm going back to our roots, to reject this techno fascist bullshit it's only downhill from here on their gear.
Yes, please. The more users we have on Graphene the harder we are to ignore as a user base.
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That's what google's been using to lockout non official Android forks like GrapheneOS. You can click on the eye icon at the bottom to get the regular captcha though... for now.
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Btw I suggest URLCheck on F-Droid, it registers as a browser and allows you to check, clean, un-shorten links and so on before opening them
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crosspost it to c/actually_infuriating
If you click the eye icon at the bottom you can go back the original captcha. For now at least.
Also I have no idea why archive.is uses reCAPTCHA from google! You've set up monaro as your only donation system so clearly you care about privacy but you haven't implemented an open source captcha?
Yeah, their privacy, not yours, evidently
Isn't scanning random QR codes super risky? This is just begging to be abused....
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Send an email to their webmaster if you haven't already. The more of us, the better.
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Good thing that everyone has a smartphone as a secondary device. God forbid you would not be able to scan a QR code, what are we, the middle ages?!?! (and I'm not even starting on the absurdity of why you would want to do it, that's another point)
archive.is has always been really problematic about having overly-aggressive google spyware captchas. half of the time i try to follow one of those links the captcha just outright rejects me because of "suspicious activity" before i can even start
very cool to see that it's somehow gotten infinitely worse
Ugh, yeah. Cloudflare too. I hate it. It's like 2/3 of sites I try,
Blah blah needs to review the security of your connection before proceeding.
Then it goes to an enedless reload loop. Or gets stuck.
I went to a site last week that belonged to a human rights organization. It's a ranking of countries by different aspects like economic freedom or w/e, and some articles about their methodolgy. Couldn't load it due to fucking Cloudflare. Cloudflare does not deem me worthy to read about human rights.
Why? Because I try to protect my right to privacy. The irony.
chances are it was FOIA-confirmed slop anyways so cloudfare likely did you a favor. lol
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and what if i don't have a mobile device?
Well, the bots do. Like 90% of viewbotting, click farming, follower buying etc is sold by people running phone farms.
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Yeah I'm not picking up my phone to use your website. Bye.
Yes, I "like" the surprises scanning a unknown QR code. I hate this crap, same as this short URLs, it's not different from clicking on shady ad banners. A trustworth website don't need this shit, hiding its domain.
The QR code point to https://recaptcha.net/qr/mMs9S9g8
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That really stinks. Does the audio version do anything different?
I did not try it and have closed the window after the popup because it was too ridiculous. I was able to find an article about this, looks like the rollout started a week ago https://cybernews.com/privacy/google-qr-code-recaptcha-requires-approved-phone/
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These are so useless. A barrier that is likely already broken by bots.
I just scanned it and now the entire nation of Bangladesh has my phone number
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oh no, it’s already happening… I must be ready
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