reCAPTCHA v3 is a well-known bot detection solution developed by Google. It is an improvement over the older version, reCAPTCHA v2, which relied on manual image recognition tasks. As the landscape of CAPTCHA solutions is constantly evolving, it is important to stay informed about future developments of reCAPTCHA v3 and possible alternatives to it. New technologies are needed to address the limitations of reCAPTCHA v3 in terms of user experience, privacy, accessibility and security.
This article aims to delve into the features and limitations of reCAPTCHA v3, examining the intricacies of its integration process. Additionally, we will look ahead to the future of bot protection, checking emerging user-friendly CAPTCHA technologies and strategies that promise to enhance online security.
Introduction to Google reCAPTCHA v3
As you get to know Google reCAPTCHA v3, there are several topics that are important to understand. reCAPTCHA v3 is a bot detection tool developed by Google. Historically, CAPTCHAs or Completely Automated Public Turing tests to tell Computers and Humans Apart have relied on traditional image based approaches, which often required users to perform image recognition tasks, such as identifying street signs, vehicles, or other objects in distorted images.
Let’s start by looking at how reCAPTCHA v3 works as a signal-based CAPTCHA and how it differs from a modern CAPTCHA using proof-of-work technology. We will then look at the use cases for a CAPTCHA like reCAPTCHA v3 to see its limitations and benefits.
How reCAPTCHA v3 works
Unlike traditional CAPTCHA methods such as Google reCAPTCHA v2, reCAPTCHA v3 represents a new concept of CAPTCHA mechanisms. The shift from visible challenges to signal-based background analysis marks a step forward in CAPTCHA technology.
reCAPTCHA v3 was developed utilizing a signal-based method that aims to operate in the background without requiring user interaction, thereby reducing user friction. Via reCAPTCHA cookies, Google continuously collects and stores a lot of user’s personal data, to determine whether the activity resembles human behavior and good interaction or suspicious users and abusive traffic. This includes the monitoring of user interaction on the website, such as mouse movements, clicks, scrolling patterns, full screenshot of the browser window and typing speed.
At the heart of reCAPTCHA v3’s functionality is the reCAPTCHA score, a numerical value between 0.0 and 1.0 that indicates a user to be very likely a bot or human. A score closer to 1.0 shows that the user is likely a human, while a reCAPTCHA score closer to 0.0 indicates potential bot activity.
reCAPTCHA v3 returns this score that allows site administrators to set an individual score threshold and take an appropriate action in the context of the site. Unlike other modern CAPTCHA providers that offer a detailed break down of risks to better understand the threats being faced, the reCAPTCHA admin console gives a simple break down of data for the top ten actions, including action names and scores.
Users with a high reCAPTCHA score (an indication of human behavior) could be granted immediate access, while those with lower scores (an indication of fraudulent behavior) could be required to undergo additional steps to verify they are human, such as email verification or solving a traditional image CAPTCHA. In the case of reCAPTCHA v3, reCAPTCHA v2 with its manual image recognition tasks is often implemented as a fallback solution in the site’s context.
In summary, reCAPTCHA v3 uses a signal-based method to distinguish between human users and bots.
Before Implementation: What You Need to Know about reCAPTCHA v3 Limits
Before explaining the integration of reCAPTCHA v3, let’s take a closer look at the limitations of Google’s bot protection solution:
Complexity of integration: One challenge with reCAPTCHA v3 is its difficulty of integration, which can be daunting. While the initial integration steps are typically straightforward, the final steps in the reCAPTCHA v3 integration process often require detailed configuration and fine-tuning to ensure that it works correctly. For websites with European customers, additional administration is required due to reCAPTCHA v3’s usage of cookies. In compliance with GDPR, website operators must obtain prior consent from their users for the use of reCAPTCHA v3 cookies. If users do not provide the required consent, they will be excluded from all web interactions protected by reCAPTCHA v3.
Accessibility issues: Despite its goal to be non-intrusive, reCAPTCHA v3 still presents accessibility issues. Users with disabilities may find it difficult to interact with sites protected by reCAPTCHA v3 because it typically uses traditional image recognition tasks in fallback cases. These visual challenges are difficult to overcome and exclude people with visual impairments or the elderly using accessibility aids like screen readers. False positives – where legitimate users are mistakenly identified as bots – can disrupt the user experience and deter genuine humans.
Usability problems: Cautious users may need to solve additional image recognition CAPTCHAs manually more often. This is especially true for users who are concerned about Google privacy, use a tracking blocker or VPN, or are not signed in to Google. Google reCAPTCHA v3 differentiates between humans and bots by using risk signals that involve reCAPTCHA cookies. If these risk signals can’t be collected due to the privacy-conscious behavior of users, reCAPTCHA v3’s bot protection is only partially successful. This results in a high rate of false positives and the exclusion of real users.
Privacy concerns: The reliance on cookies and extensive data collection by reCAPTCHA v3 raises significant privacy concerns. There is a lack of transparency about how user data is collected, stored and used, leading to user mistrust and potential non-compliance with strict privacy regulations. As a U.S. company, Google is subject to U.S. national surveillance and privacy regulations. At the same time, websites that reach European users must comply with the stricter requirements of the GDPR: For example, European users’ personal data cannot be shared with U.S. companies without additional safeguards.
reCAPTCHA v3’s limitations in integration, accessibility, usability, and most importantly, privacy, lead to the need for better solutions.
reCAPTCHA Enterprise in Action: Learn About the Benefits
Despite its limitations, reCAPTCHA v3 Enterprise is used on many websites. There are some benefits when reCAPTCHA Enterprise is in action for enterprise customers.
Usually not visible: Normally, reCPATCHA Enterprise provides an invisible version without image recognition tasks. Once a user’s behavior is classified as unusual, there is an additional fallback test that needs to be resolved. The well-known traditional reCAPTCHA v2 is often used as a fallback, but its image recognition tasks are far away from an accessible CAPTCHA or being WCAG-compliant.
Flexible risk management: The dynamic risk scoring system of reCAPTCHA Enterprise allows for flexible risk management. Site administrators can customize the response based on the reCAPTCHA Enterprise risk score. While the customization allows some flexibility, setting a single specific threshold is a challenge for site owners. Using the reCAPTCHA v3 score to make a binary decision to either completely block or allow a user will result in a high false positive rate. This will exclude too many people from web forms.
Basic bot protection: reCAPTCHA Enterprise is used by many companies around the world. reCAPTCHA Enterprise is the first step to protect a webpage against bots. However, the security capabilities of reCAPTCHA Enterprise should be compared to other reCAPTCHA alternatives, as it provides only basic protection against simple bots.
We have seen that reCAPTCHA Enterprise has its benefits, but also some limitations. It is important to compare reCAPTCHA Enterprise with other Enterprise CAPTCHA providers such as Friendly Captcha to find the best solution for your business.
Next, we’ll explore various use cases of reCAPTCHA v3, demonstrating its practical applications in common use cases and its effectiveness in securing online platforms.
Google reCAPTCHA v3 Common Use Cases
Differentiating between real users and bots based on human and bot behavior is what Google reCAPTCHA v3 aims to achieve. In order to protect common use cases with reCAPTCHA v3, reCAPTCHA customers accept the associated disadvantages for themselves and their users. reCAPTCHA v3 comes pre-configured to protect several common actions, including password reset, payment authorization, and customer account creation.
Successful threats can damage brand reputation, disrupt the customer experience, corrupt users’ personal data, violate privacy, and enable fraudulent transactions. By using Google reCAPTCHA v3 in these scenarios, organizations benefit from improved security and increased user confidence.
The following online threats can be protected with a CAPTCHA like reCAPTCHA 3:
Bot protection** and defense against automated attacks**: Bots can cripple entire industries through spam, content scraping, fake reviews, account takeovers, and automated resource abuse. Businesses need to understand the goals of bots and be able to detect malicious bot activity. With the right tools and techniques, such as reCAPTCHA v3, the threats posed by bots can be greatly reduced.
Account protection and account takeover prevention: Account takeovers are a constant risk in the digital world. Organizations must protect their web interactions, such as logging in, registering, and completing online forms, with a CAPTCHA to meet this growing cyber security threat.
Protect against fake accounts: Fake accounts are used to spread spam, abuse, fraud, and misinformation online. Bad actors create false identities on digital platforms, leading to serious consequences for businesses. Fake accounts can manipulate online surveys or reviews, spread misinformation, and conduct corporate espionage.
Protect against SMS toll fraud and SMS pumping attacks: SMS toll fraud or SMS pumping involves attackers using bots to send bulk messages to service numbers. This cyberattack disrupts the organization’s device or network. Preventing SMS pumping requires robust security measures, such as an advanced CAPTCHA, to detect and block suspicious activity.
Transaction protection: Card and payment fraud involving stolen credit card data causes significant financial loss and damage to customer confidence every year. Fraudulent transactions often involve the illegal use of sensitive user data in the financial and digital environment. Cybercriminals exploit security vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access to confidential data.
3 Steps on How to Implement reCAPTCHA v3
Implementing reCAPTCHA v3 involves a few essential steps that require specific technical prerequisites and skills. First, make sure that your website is live and has a functioning server backend, as reCAPTCHA v3 relies on server-side verification to process user interaction.
You should also gather the necessary skills and tools to implement it. You will need at least a basic understanding of HTML and server-side programming languages such as PHP, Python, or JavaScript. These skills are essential for embedding the reCAPTCHA v3 script into your web pages and performing the server-side verification process.
1. Registering for Google reCAPTCHA v3 and Obtaining the Site Key
To begin using reCAPTCHA v3, you must first register your site and obtain the necessary keys. The process starts with creating a Google account if you do not already have one. A Google account is essential to access the Google Developer Console, which is where you’ll manage your reCAPTCHA settings.
Once you have a Google account, navigate to the reCAPTCHA website and sign up using your Google credentials. After signing in, you’ll be directed to the Google reCAPTCHA admin console. Here, you need to register a new site by selecting the option for reCAPTCHA v3. During this registration process, you’ll be prompted to enter your site’s domain, which is necessary for generating the site key and secret key.
Upon completing the registration, Google will provide the keys for authorization in the reCAPTCHA admin console. The site key is used on the frontend of your website to integrate reCAPTCHA, while the secret key is utilized on the server side for verification purposes. It is essential to keep the secret key secure, as it is integral to the functionality and security of reCAPTCHA on your site.
2. Integration reCAPTCHA v3
It is time to implement reCAPTCHA v3 now that you have completed step 1 and successfully registered or received your site key. When implementing reCAPTCHA v3 with your site, you’ll need to address both frontend and backend integration components. Here’s a detailed guide on how to handle each part of the integration process.
Frontend Integration of reCAPTCHA v3
The first step in frontend integration is to include the reCAPTCHA script in your HTML. You can do this by adding the following line to the <head> section of your HTML document. Replace your_site_key with the site key you obtained during the registration process. This script is essential for reCAPTCHA to ensure the functionality on your website.
<script src="https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api.js?render=reCAPTCHA_site_key"></script>
You must configure the client-side code after adding the reCAPTCHA script. This involves automatically binding reCAPTCHA to a button or calling it programmatically.
To automatically bind the challenge to a button, you have to define a function that handles the CAPTCHA response once it’s completed:
<script>
function onSubmit(token) {
document.getElementById("demo-form").submit();
}
</script>
Now add some attributes to the button to let reCAPTCHA v3 automatically bind to it:
<button class="g-recaptcha"
data-sitekey="reCAPTCHA_site_key"
data-callback='onSubmit'
data-action='submit'>Submit</button>
If you prefer to call reCAPTCHA v3 programmatically, you can call the grecaptcha.execute() method based on certain user actions, such as form submissions:
<script>
function onClick(e) {
e.preventDefault();
grecaptcha.ready(function() {
grecaptcha.execute('reCAPTCHA_site_key', {action: 'submit'}).then(function(token) {
// Add your logic to submit to your backend server here.
});
});
}
</script>
For user transparency, it’s important to place the reCAPTCHA v3 badge on your site. The badge informs users that your site is protected by reCAPTCHA v3. You can add it to your site by including the reCAPTCHA code where you want the badge to appear. Alternatively, you can use CSS to adjust the position of the badge to better fit your site’s design.
Backend Integration of reCAPTCHA v3
Once you receive the reCAPTCHA v3 token from the frontend, you need to verify it on your server. Here’s how to do this in several popular languages:
Example in Node.js:
const verifyRecaptcha = async (token) => {
const secretKey = '[YOUR SECRET KEY]';
const url = `https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/siteverify?secret=${secretKey}&response=${token}`;
const response = await fetch(url, {method: "POST"})
.then(r => r.json());
return response;
};
Example in PHP:
function verifyRecaptcha($token) {
$secretKey = '[YOUR SECRET KEY]';
$url = 'https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/siteverify';
$data = [
'secret' => $secretKey,
'response' => $token
];
$options = [
'http' => [
'header' => "Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n",
'method' => 'POST',
'content' => http_build_query($data)
]
];
$context = stream_context_create($options);
$result = file_get_contents($url, false, $context);
return json_decode($result);
}
After you verify the CAPTCHA response, you receive a response that includes a risk score. Use this score to make security decisions and set your own score threshold. By running appropriate action based on the risk score, you can try to balance security and user experience. A threshold of 0.5 acts as a good default:
if (response.success && response.score >= 0.5) {
// Treat as human and proceed with the request
} else {
// Treat as bot and take appropriate action
}
Through a dedicated reCAPTCHA module and plugin, reCAPTCHA v3 can be integrated with various frameworks and CMS platforms. Here are some examples:
WordPress: Many WordPress form builder plugins offer support for reCAPTCHA v3. If you aren’t using one of these form builder plugins, you can use the “reCaptcha by BestWebSoft” plugin to add support for reCAPTCHA v3.
Joomla: The “reCaptcha Invisible” plugin allows integration with Joomla sites.
Other Frameworks: There are packages for many other frameworks such as Django, Ruby on Rails, and Laravel that integrate reCAPTCHA v3.
3. Testing and Validation after Google reCAPTCHA Implementation
Once you’ve integrated the Google reCAPTCHA module into your site, it’s important to perform thorough testing and validation to ensure that it’s working properly. This includes several tasks to verify that reCAPTCHA v3 is active, effective, and not causing unintended problems for human users.
For initial testing, verify that reCAPTCHA v3 is active by checking for the presence of the reCAPTCHA v3 badge on your site. The badge typically appears in the lower right corner of the screen, indicating that reCAPTCHA v3 is running in the background. Visit your site and navigate through different pages to ensure that the badge appears consistently. In addition, use your browser’s developer tools to inspect the HTML and confirm that the reCAPTCHA v3 script is properly included and loaded.
Next, visit the Google reCAPTCHA admin console to monitor the performance and effectiveness of reCAPTCHA v3. Access the Google reCAPTCHA admin console using your Google Account and explore the dashboard.
The reCAPTCHA admin console provides insights into the successes and failures of reCAPTCHA CAPTCHA challenges. In the reCAPTCHA admin console, there is a break down of action names and action data for the top ten actions. Choose your score threshold according to the action name and find a variable action. Be careful to choose the right score threshold to avoid locking out real users, while also blocking harmful bots. Balancing this black-and-white decision is a tricky – and often impossible – task to avoid usability and accessibility issues.
During testing, you may encounter common error messages. Understanding and troubleshooting them is covered here. Addressing these errors promptly will help maintain the effectiveness and reliability of reCAPTCHA v3 on your site.
“timeout-or-duplicate”: This error occurs when the reCAPTCHA v3 token is used more than once or has expired. Make sure each token is used only once and is valid at the time of verification.
“missing-input-secret”: The secret parameter is missing. Make sure you are sending the secret key correctly in your verification request.
“invalid-input-secret”: The secret parameter is invalid or malformed. Check that the secret key is correctly copied and configured.
“missing-input-response”: The response parameter is missing. Make sure the token is correctly sent from the frontend to your server.
“invalid-input-response”: The response parameter is invalid or malformed. Verify that the token received from the client side is properly formatted.
Thorough testing and validation is critical after implementing Google reCAPTCHA v3. By verifying the presence of the reCAPTCHA badge, reviewing the admin console, and troubleshooting common errors, you can check if reCAPTCHA v3 runs on your site. To address emerging issues and improve overall site security, regular monitoring and manual adjustments are required.
reCAPTCHA v3 and the Future of Bot Protection
Online security is paramount and the need for advanced bot protection solutions has never been greater. In the CAPTCHA market, reCAPTCHA v3 takes its place. While reCAPTCHA v3 uses a signal-based method, it can quickly reach its limits with atypical user behavior and resort to traditional CAPTCHA challenges from reCAPTCHA v2, such as image recognition tasks.
Modern CAPTCHA solutions aim to provide robust security while maintaining a seamless user experience. Unlike reCAPTCHA v3, which uses traditional CAPTCHA challenges with visual image recognition puzzles as a fallback solution, modern CAPTCHA providers use a modern cryptographic proof-of-work mechanism.
Proof-of-Work CAPTCHAs for Innovative Bot Protection
Proof-of-work CAPTCHAs are an innovative approach to detecting bots. They require users’ devices to perform a small computational task that is difficult for bots and invisible for humans. This method uses the computing power of the user’s device and allows you to protect your web interactions from bots and fraudulent actors without direct user interaction.
One of the main advantages of a proof-of-work CAPTCHA is its invisibility. Because this type of CAPTCHA works completely in the background, it provides an invisible user experience without interfering with normal website activity. Users do not notice the presence of the CAPTCHA, so their interaction with the website is smooth and uninterrupted.
From a security perspective, a proof-of-work CAPTCHA provides a significant improvement in protection against automated attacks. Because this CAPTCHA requires bots to perform computationally intensive tasks, it is much harder for bots to circumvent the security measures. This additional layer of security helps reduce the risk of bot-driven abuse and fraudulent activity on a website.
Another important benefit of a proof-of-work CAPTCHA is privacy. Unlike traditional methods like reCAPTCHA v3, which can involve extensive data collection and persistent storage of user information, a proof-of-work CAPTCHA collects minimal data. They do not persistently store user information, which strengthens user privacy and helps organizations comply with strict privacy regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
While reCAPTCHA v3 remains a valuable solution to protect agains bots, the emergence of new CAPTCHA technologies offers new possibilities for the future of online security. Next-generation solutions combine proof-of-work technology with advanced risk signal evaluation to significantly improve CAPTCHA security and minimize false positives. One example of such an innovative CAPTCHA is Friendly Captcha, which we will now explore in more detail.
Why Friendly Captcha Stands Out Compared to reCAPTCHA v3
Both reCAPTCHA v3 and Friendly Captcha provide robust protection against bots and spam. Friendly Captcha goes a step further by incorporating additional defense mechanisms and completely eliminating user interaction and the need for traditional CAPTCHA challenges. Here are the key differences between Friendly Captcha and reCAPTCHA v3.
reCAPTCHA v3 User Experience Compared to Friendly Captcha
reCAPTCHA v3 operates silently in the background most of the time. However, if it detects suspicious activity, it needs a fallback to manual tasks, such as reCAPTCHA v2’s image recognition tasks that must be solved by hand. These tests can be nerve-racking and time-consuming, leading to increased bounce rates.
In contrast, Friendly Captcha’s proof-of-work approach requires no user input, making it exceptionally user-friendly. Users are never interrupted or asked to solve manual puzzles, identify images, or type characters. This ease of use enhances user satisfaction and reduces the risk of abandonment during form submissions or transactions, which is crucial for maintaining high conversion rates.
reCAPTCHA v3 Privacy and Data Protection Compared to Friendly Captcha
reCAPTCHA v3 collects various personally identifiable information and analyzes detailed user interactions, such as the IP address of the user or a full screenshot of the browser window. While Google reCAPTCHA v3 works in the background using cookies and persistent browser storage, it raises privacy concerns among users unaware of the extent of data collection and reCAPTCHA v3’s GDPR-compliance.
Conversely, Friendly Captcha is designed with privacy as a core principle, collecting minimal user data and not storing it persistently. Friendly Captcha does not use HTTP cookies and does not use persistent browser storage. This approach reduces potential privacy concerns and complies better with strict privacy regulations by focusing on computational background challenges.
reCAPTCHA v3 Accessibility Compared to Friendly Captcha
Google’s fallback mechanisms to traditional reCAPTCHA v2 challenges restrict the accessibility of reCAPTCHA v3. It may misinterpret atypical user behavior as suspicious bot activity, challenging real users again or even excluding them entirely.
Friendly Captcha is inherently accessible to users with disabilities. By completely removing visual or interactive CAPTCHA challenges, it ensures barrier-free access for all users, regardless of ability, and complies with WCAG standards.
reCAPTCHA v3 Security Compared to Friendly Captcha
With the rise of AI and increasingly sophisticated bots, reCAPTCHA v3 is quickly reaching its limits. These bots are getting better at mimicking human behavior and human signals. reCAPTCHA v3’s signal-based analysis can hardly differentiate between humans and bots without also using manual user tasks as a fallback.
Friendly Captcha’s proof-of-work technology is highly effective at protecting against bots. By requiring a scalable computational task that bots find difficult to perform efficiently in combination with advanced risk signals and difficulty scaling, it provides robust defense against automated attacks.
Friendly Captcha stands out for its user-friendly, privacy-conscious, and highly accessible approach. Its proof-of-work system ensures the highest level of security without compromising user experience or accessibility, making it an innovative alternative to reCAPTCHA v3. Let’s take a look at the Friendly Captcha integration.
Implementing Friendly Captcha: A Practical Guide
Implementing Friendly Captcha on your site is a straightforward process that can be easier and more future-proof than integrating reCAPTCHA v3 from Google. Here is a step-by-step guide to help you through the simple Friendly Captcha integration process:
1. Sign Up for Friendly Captcha
Visit the Friendly Captcha website and sign up for an account. After signing up, you will receive a site key and a API key, similar to the keys provided by reCAPTCHA v3.
2. Add the Friendly Captcha Scripts
The friendly-challenge library contains the code for CAPTCHA widget. Simply add the following script tags to your frontend to load it, or host the script yourself for even greater privacy and security:
<script data-minify="1"
type="module"
src="https://friendlycaptcha.com/wp-content/cache/min/1/npm/friendly-challenge@0.9.14/widget.module.min.js?ver=1719834700"
async
defer
></script>
<script data-minify="1" nomodule src="https://friendlycaptcha.com/wp-content/cache/min/1/npm/friendly-challenge@0.9.14/widget.min.js?ver=1719834700" async defer></script>
3. Add the Friendly Captcha Widget to Your Form
Insert the following code snippet into your HTML form where you want to place Friendly Captcha. Replace your_sitekey with the individual site key you received during registration.
<div class="frc-captcha" data-sitekey="your_sitekey"></div>
4. Verify the Solution Token on the Server
On form submission, Friendly Captcha generates a solution token that must be verified on the server. Use the following example to verify the token on your server. Replace your_secret_key with your secret key. Here is an example in Node.js:
const verifyFriendlyCaptcha = async (solution) => {
const secretKey = 'your_secret_key';
const response = await fetch('https://api.friendlycaptcha.com/api/v1/siteverify', {
method: "POST",
headers: {
"Content-Type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
},
body: {
secret: secretKey,
solution: solution
}
});
return response.success;
};
Now you have finished the Friendly Captcha integration. It easily works out of the box and offers a wide range of pre-built integrations for popular frameworks and software systems. For more detailed information about Friendly Captcha integration, see the documentation.
Recap of reCAPTCHA v3 and Its Challenges
While reCAPTCHA v3 marks a step forward in CAPTCHA technology with its signal-based background operation, it falls short in several critical areas. The complexity of the integration and ongoing manual administration, persistent privacy concerns due to extensive data collection, and the fallback to intrusive image-based reCAPTCHA v2 challenges have marred its promise. reCAPTCHA v3’s limitations make it a frustrating experience for users, especially for those with disabilities.
Given these limitations, reCAPTCHA v3 is not an ideal solution for modern enterprise bot protection. The landscape of online security demands more sophisticated, user-friendly, and privacy-conscious alternatives.
Friendly Captcha stands out as a superior choice, addressing the critical shortcomings of Google reCAPTCHA v3. With its proof-of-work mechanism, Friendly Captcha operates truly invisible, ensuring robust bot protection without compromising user experience or CAPTCHA accessibility. It eliminates intrusive data collection, aligning with privacy regulations and fostering user trust.
If you are serious about enhancing your website’s security while providing an invisible, acessible and privacy-compliant user experience, it’s time to reconsider the use of reCAPTCHA v3.
Explore Friendly Captcha and discover how it can offer superior protection, maintain user satisfaction, and ensure compliance with privacy standards. Switch to Friendly Captcha and take a decisive step towards a more secure and user-friendly online presence. Sign up for a free test account.
FAQ
To use reCAPTCHA v3 on your website, you must first create a free Google Account. Then proceed with the frontend integration of reCAPTCHA v3. Add the code and configure the client-side code after adding the script. Now you need to decide if you want reCAPTCHA v3 to be automatically added to the button or if you want reCAPTCHA v3 to be automatically invoked. The next step is to work on the backend integration of reCAPTCHA v3. For various user interactions, such as payment transactions or user verification, reCAPTCHA v3 displays a risk score. Based on the reCAPTCHA v3 risk score, you can then set a score threshold and appropriate actions to secure your site.
If you are looking for a CAPTCHA solution that works out of the box and does not require a lot of administration, Friendly Captcha is the right choice. There’s no need for users to manually solve challenges or for site owners to set risk thresholds to distinguish bots from real people.
reCAPTCHA v3 does not initially provide visual challenges to verify whether a user is a human or a bot. reCAPTCHA v3 uses signal-based scoring with manual user tasks as a fallback solution to ensure when the snippet is selected by Google, it already contains the information about the manual fallback tasks. To do this, reCAPTCHA v3 works mostly in the background to continuously analyze user behavior and assign a risk score.
However, when user behavior becomes atypical and the background check is no longer sufficient for verification, reCAPTCHA v3 requires a fallback solution. Typically, reCAPTCHA v2 is used, which requires visual challenges. This negates the accessibility and simplicity of the approach.
For a fully accessible CAPTCHA, you should take a closer look at Friendly Captcha. With the modern proof-of-work approach, it does not require manual image recognition puzzles and is even WCAG compliant.
Yes, reCAPTCHA v3 can be integrated with other fraud prevention tools. Google reCAPTCHA v3 can interact with existing bot protection. Once you add a CAPTCHA like reCAPTCHA v3 to your website or mobile application, an additional layer of fraud detection security is added to your site.
If you want to integrate a secure, accessible, and privacy-friendly reCAPTCHA v3 alternative into your existing fraud tools, Friendly Captcha is worth a look.
If legitimate users are being blocked or challenged too often, consider adjusting the score threshold. Finding the right threshold between security and blocking human users is not easy. You can also implement fallback methods, such as email verification or traditional CAPTCHAs, for users who fail the initial reCAPTCHA v3 assessment.
It is these fallback solutions that make the invisible and therefore accessible approach of reCAPTCHA v3 obsolete. When known image recognition tests are run for atypical behavior, they are difficult or impossible to solve for blind people and people with other disabilities. If you are looking for an accessible CAPTCHA, you will find it at Friendly Captcha with its proof-of-work solution.
reCAPTCHA v3 is available for mobile apps with convenient SDKs. The reCAPTCHA v3 Mobile SDKs protect iOS and Android apps from fraudulent activity, spam and abuse. After completing the extensive integration process, site owners must now set the appropriate threshold to distinguish bots from humans. Setting a binary value can be quite tricky in some circumstances and comes with the well-known CAPTCHA accessibility issues.
A CAPTCHA that offers the best security, usability and WCAG accessibility is Friendly Captcha. Learn more about Friendly Captcha’s proof-of-work approach here!
Typical forms of online fraud include bot attacks, spam bots, website scraping, account takeovers, fake accounts, credential stuffing, payment fraud, card testing, chargebacks, stolen instruments, and gift card testing. To protect against online fraud, CAPTCHA solutions such as reCAPTCHA v3 and Friendly Captcha are used. Friendly Captcha provides a new generation of CAPTCHA with simple, user-friendly, and accessible protection against typical online fraud. Try out yourself and sign up for a free test account!
