reCAPTCHA Enterprise is a bot protection solution service from Google that protects a website from fraud involving spam, bots, credential stuffing attacks and automated threats.
Google reCAPTCHA has been on the market for over a decade and is best known for its traditional “I’m not a robot” tests, which require users to click on images of cars or traffic lights. reCAPTCHA Enterprise is a cybersecurity solution for enterprises looking to protect their enterprise applications against fraud and spam.
The reCAPTCHA Enterprise version builds on the traditional reCAPTCHA technology and attempts to meet the security requirements of large organizations and companies. It uses CAPTCHA challenges and machine learning to differentiate between human users and automated bots. The suitability of reCAPTCHA Enterprise as an enterprise CAPTCHA solution for a large organization is contingent upon a number of factors.
This article shows how Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise works, what its features are and how it compares as a traditional enterprise CAPTCHA with modern alternatives such as Friendly Captcha Enterprise. In doing so, we will discover the significant differences that can be observed in the areas of privacy, security, accessibility and user experience.
Introduction to Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise
Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise was introduced as part of the launch of the latest reCAPTCHA version v3 in 2021. It is the commercial option of reCAPTCHA v3 and marks the transition from a free to a paid service.
Google reCAPTCHA v3 was developed to address some of the limitations of its predecessors. Specifically, it was designed to overcome the shortcomings of reCAPTCHA v1, which presented distorted text, and reCAPTCHA v2, which relied on image recognition tasks. These earlier versions were often exploited by bad actors who found ways to bypass the security measures. Similarly, issues pertaining to customer experience and accessibility often coincided.
In response to the growing demand from large organizations for more robust security solutions against automated threats such as credential stuffing attacks and account takeover, Google has introduced the commercial reCAPTCHA Enterprise. The following section will present an overview of the functionality and features of Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise.
Features: Bot Protection With reCAPTCHA Enterprise
reCAPTCHA Enterprise aims to distinguish between legitimate users and robots using behavioral analysis and machine learning. reCAPTCHA Enterprise’s AI-driven approach is intended for large organizations, resulting in the following reCAPTCHA Enterprise features:- Bot detection and prevention: Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise employs a signal-based risk analysis methodology that uses machine learning models to assess risk scores associated with user interactions and distinguish between legitimate users and attackers. reCAPTCHA Enterprise provides risk scores based on the likelihood of users being malicious bots. These risk scores allow businesses to customize the response, such as requiring their users to identify images.
- Account takeover prevention and fraud detection: reCAPTCHA Enterprise strives to detect instances of account takeover and thereby protect websites and personal accounts from the threat of fraudulent attacks. It reduces account creation at scale by preventing the entry of login information and compromised credentials.
- SMS toll fraud attack protection: The reCAPTCHA risk analysis evaluates risk scores associated with common phone numbers, thereby supporting organizations in their efforts to mitigate the threat of SMS toll fraud.
- Transaction fraud detection: By evaluating the potential risks associated with individual transaction behavior, reCAPTCHA Enterprise often identifies and prevents fraud and abuse with stolen credit card usage. To achieve this, reCAPTCHA Enterprise combines the extensive personal data collected by Google with information on known fraudulent patterns and carding attacks. This helps deter payment fraud.
- Google fraud intelligence: The Google universe, comprising an innumerable quantity of transactions, user data, and devices from a multitude of websites, provides reCAPTCHA Enterprise with an extensive repository of information that can be mined to gain insights into fraud prevention. The models in question are not solely designed for Google’s core business of marketing and advertising. They are also intended to identify instances of fraudulent activity, unsolicited commercial communications, and spam and abuse.
reCAPTCHA Enterprise: How It Works
Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise employs a complex process to evaluate the risk associated with each user interaction, making it challenging to implement.
Following implementation, reCAPTCHA Enterprise engages with both the backend infrastructure and the client-facing interface of the enterprise website or Android apps. When an end user visits the website or uses iOS and Android apps, the reCAPTCHA JavaScript API or Mobile SDK is initialized, and the recording of the signals begins immediately, including the collection of personal data.
When an end user initiates an action protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise, such as logging in or submitting a web form, the reCAPTCHA JavaScript API or mobile SDK in the client requests a verdict from reCAPTCHA Enterprise. Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise then returns an encrypted reCAPTCHA token to the client, which in turn forwards it to the backend for evaluation.
The backend then requests the creation of an assessment (assessment.create) and sends it to reCAPTCHA Enterprise along with the reCAPTCHA token. After the assessment, reCAPTCHA Enterprise assigns risk scores between 0.0 and 1.0 for each website visitor.
A risk score of 1 represents low risk and supposedly legitimate users, and 0 represents high risk and malicious actors. Based on the risk scores, developers must now define further actions for the specific user request or action. For instance, the user may be entirely blocked from further access, or they may be required to complete additional manual reCAPTCHA tests, such as image recognition tasks, to confirm that they are not a robot.
In conclusion, the signal-based method enables reCAPTCHA Enterprise to function as a form of invisible reCAPTCHA, or invisible CAPTCHA. This is accomplished through the utilization of cookies, which allow Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise to monitor user behavior and gather data from end users. Subsequently, the data is employed to categorize the activity in question as either human or suspicious behavior. Depending on the risk classification, manual tasks such as clicking on cars or traffic lights can be presented to the user.
Comprehensive Evaluation of reCAPTCHA Enterprise
The selection of an appropriate enterprise CAPTCHA solution is a challenging undertaking, primarily due to the dynamic nature of the security landscape, evolving user experience expectations, and rapid technological advancements. The pros and cons of Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise highlight the complexity of choosing the most suitable option for a company’s specific needs.
It is imperative that organizations implement an enterprise CAPTCHA solution that is able to effectively deter sophisticated bots and malicious actors without impeding legitimate user access. CAPTCHA accessibility, privacy, security, and user experience are critical factors that influence website conversion rates.
Furthermore, there are privacy implications concerns with using enterprise CAPTCHAs and reCAPTCHA Enterprise in particular in conjunction with the Google Cloud Platform. A significant number of organizations are obliged to comply with rigorous data protection regulations, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
The traditional signal-based approach employed by reCAPTCHA Enterprise entails the collection of user data via cookies. It is the responsibility of website owners to consider the quantity of user data collected and the manner in which it is utilized.
Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise: GDPR & Privacy Compliance
In the context of privacy compliance, Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise has been the subject of sustained criticism from privacy advocates around the globe for an extended period of time. Google monetizes user data, cookies, and local storage through targeted advertising.This suggests that all user activities are subject to monitoring, even when occurring across disparate websites. The data collected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise is employed for the purpose of determining whether a request is generated by legitimate users or a malicious bots.
Moreover, Google has been criticized for its perceived lack of transparency regarding data processing and storage. It is impossible for enterprise customers to determine which personal data is collected from their end users, the reasons for this collection, or the manner in which this data is processed. It is evident that all cookies associated with the google.com domain can be accessed by other Google services, including Google Analytics. Consequently, end users are subject to tracking across all of Google’s services.
The international transfer of data to the U.S. also represents a significant challenge in terms of data protection law. As a U.S.-based entity, Google is bound by the regulations pertaining to data protection in the USA. However, websites designed for the European market are required to comply with the GDPR. Thus, it is crucial to implement additional protective measures to prevent the transfer of personal data belonging to European users to U.S. companies.
In conclusion, it is challenging for companies to utilize reCAPTCHA Enterprise in a manner that is compliant with data protection regulations. This is why an EU CAPTCHA provider is more important than ever.
reCAPTCHA Enterprise: Security Compliance
It is paramount for any organization to adhere to the relevant security compliance regulations. When using Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise, it is imperative that web forms—including contact forms, registration processes and checkout processes—are secured, and automated bot and spam attacks are prevented.
In order to ensure the security of these forms and interfaces, Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise assigns each user a risk score ranging from 0.0 to 1.0. Based on this score, the website operator must determine whether to allow the user to submit the form or to block the user entirely. Users deemed to pose a potential risk are completely restricted from accessing the system according to specific configuration parameters.
To circumvent this issue, numerous administrators have opted to implement supplementary reCAPTCHA tests above a designated risk threshold, thus preventing unwarranted blocking. In most cases, this supplementary verification is conducted using reCAPTCHA v2 and the visual image recognition tasks.
In terms of CAPTCHA accessibility and security, using the fallback solutions suggests that we are reverting to the long-outdated reCAPTCHA versions. This is due to the fact that persons with disabilities are too often unable to solve these reCAPTCHA tests manually, whereas even simple machine learning algorithms and AIs are able to successfully select the appropriate solutions.
Despite the prevalence of reCAPTCHA Enterprise among a multitude of global enterprises, instances of failure or error persist. Users have reported that reCAPTCHA has suddenly stopped working or encountered issues with the reCAPTCHA widget on individual pages. As an enterprise customer, however, it is imperative that a CAPTCHA solution is in place that can be relied upon at all times.
Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise: Accessibility Compliance
It is widely acknowledged that reCAPTCHA Enterprise presents a number of accessibility issues. Despite Google reCAPTCHA’s assertion that Enterprise customers can expect an Invisible reCAPTCHA without visual challenges, it is often not possible to guarantee this.
The website administrator is responsible for determining the risk score, which serves as the basis for differentiating between legitimate users and bots. The administrator decides at which risk score a user is classified as a human and at which point they are identified as a bot and blocked. Nevertheless, this distinct demarcation between legitimate users and bots excludes a considerable number of individuals from essential web forms. Those with disabilities who rely on accessibility tools or individuals who prioritize privacy and do not wish to share data with Google are consequently excluded.
Many administrators resort to reCAPTCHA v2 with picture puzzles as a fallback solution. In this case, images must be recognized visually according to a specific template and selected manually, which precludes CAPTCHA accessibility.
recAPTCHA Enterprise: User Experience
reCAPTCHA Enterprise, which employs reCAPTCHA v3, is, in fact, an Invisible reCAPTCHA. As an enhancement of image and text CAPTCHAs, reCAPTCHA Enterprise generates a risk score, which is used to assess the likelihood of a user being a human rather than a machine. For this purpose, Google stores and analyzes all personal data collected about each individual user. The risk score thus determined then serves to distinguish between legitimate users and bots.
What initially appears to be a clear boundary through the risk score is accompanied by a number of challenges in the context of everyday business. In essence, it is not the CAPTCHA itself that determines whether an entity is an attacker or a human. The responsibility for making this determination falls upon the website administrator.
By establishing an individual threshold, the decision is made as to whether to exclude the individual in question entirely or to utilize additional puzzles or tests. It is not uncommon for users to be subjected to onerous and time-consuming image labeling tasks associated with reCAPTCHA v2. These tasks often require the selection of specific elements, such as cars or traffic lights, within a complex visual context. It has been observed that such tasks result in a considerable increase in user friction and a high bounce rate. Both of these approaches ultimately result in a suboptimal user experience and limited accessibility.
Friendly Captcha Enterprise: A Compelling Contender
The advancement of bots and fraudulent attacks with the use of machine learning, the heightened security demands of numerous organizations, and the necessity for a fully accessible website have revealed the shortcomings of Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise and other prominent CAPTCHA providers in recent years.
This is the rationale behind the establishment of Friendly Captcha in 2020. The modern CAPTCHA provider, headquartered in Germany, is engaged in a process of rethinking and further developing the underlying technology of traditional CAPTCHAs and the common practice of data breaches. In contrast to the extensive risk and behavior analysis based on signals employed by Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise, Friendly Captcha utilizes proof-of-work technology.
Friendly Captcha Enterprise provides an organization or enterprise with the highest levels of security, bot protection, accessibility, user experience, and compliance, in addition to personalized support. This section will examine the operational details of a proof-of-work CAPTCHA and the benefits that Friendly Captcha offers to enterprises.
Friendly Captcha Enterprise: How It Works
The core of the Friendly Captcha system is a cryptographic challenge based on the proof-of-work concept. In this manner, a computational task is presented to the browser, rather than the end user. Website visitors are never required to solve an image CAPTCHA challenge manually. The CAPTCHA test is performed by their device instead.
The puzzle is relatively simple and can be readily processed by the legitimate user’s device in the background. However, for automated bots, the challenge becomes computationally intensive as the number of attacks increases, which prevents such activities as well as fraud or attacks.
The complexity of the puzzle is adjusted in accordance with the findings of the advanced risk analysis engine. Friendly Captcha gathers data from user behavior and the context of the user’s interaction with the system.
In essence, only the data that is indispensable is collected – but without HTTP cookies, and it is not stored in persistent memory. This methodology renders Friendly Captcha a truly invisible CAPTCHA and an accessible, user-friendly, privacy-friendly, and GDPR-compliant CAPTCHA solution that differs from reCAPTCHA Enterprise.
Friendly Captcha Enterprise: GDPR & Privacy Compliance
Friendly Captcha Enterprise is designed with the highest level of data protection. Without using HTTP cookies and storing personal data in the persistent storage, the Friendly Captcha Enterprise version is fully GDPR compliant. The Data Processing Agreement for Friendly Captcha Enterprise explicitly delineates the types of data collected and the measures taken to minimize data collection.
Friendly Captcha Enterprise does not use HTTP cookies or persistent browser storage, such as LocalStorage or IndexedDB. Consequently, the system is incapable of tracking users and does not store any personal data. Website operators are not required to obtain prior consent from users.
As a European CAPTCHA provider, Friendly Captcha Enterprise is in compliance with the most rigorous European data protection standards. Data is not transferred to third countries outside the EU.
In order to ensure that the personal data of European visitors is never transferred outside the European Union, Friendly Captcha Enterprise customers are provided with a dedicated EU endpoint. The Friendly Captcha Enterprises solution is thus compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other relevant privacy regulations. Test GDPR compliant Friendly Captcha free for 30 days!
Friendly Captcha Enterprise: Security Compliance
In regard to security, Friendly Captcha Enterprise is distinguished from reCAPTCHA Enterprise. Friendly Captcha Enterprise does never block real users. In the event that conspicuous risk signals are identified, the difficulty of the background puzzle is adaptively adjusted. The computational burden is slightly increased, yet legitimate users can still accomplish their action while bots are repelled.
Friendly Captcha Enterprise works out of the box. Unlike reCAPTCHA Enterprise, website administrators do not have to deal with additional issues such as the introduction of additional security features. With Friendly Captcha Enterprise, enterprises can save valuable time on ongoing maintenance.
The reCAPTCHA Enterprise system differs from the Friendly Captcha Enterprise system in that it does not require website administrators to add additional Google reCAPTCHA challenges. Without the fallback tests, such as image labelling tasks, Friendly Captcha Enterprise customers can easily find the optimal balance between security and user experience. When properly installed, Friendly Captcha Enterprise fulfills its intended function of protecting web forms from automated bots without interfering with the ability of legitimate users to interact with them.
Moreover, Friendly Captcha’s enterprise clients can depend on the service level agreement (SLA). The SLA document delineates the availability and quality of the CAPTCHA service, as well as providing information regarding the range of services, availability, and response time.
Friendly Captcha Enterprise: Accessibility Compliance
Friendly Captcha Enterprise guarantees accessibility compliance by using proof-of-work technology that runs entirely in the background. Friendly Captcha offers comprehensive assurance of complete CAPTCHA accessibility. With Friendly Captcha Enterprise, companies can rely on a WCAG-compliant CAPTCHA that uses sophisticated risk signaling, device challenges, and bot attacks.
However, the proof-of-work approach does never challenge a human being, but instead confronts the website visitor’s device with a cryptographic challenge that it solves in the background. The complexity of the background puzzle is contingent upon the assessment of the risk signals, thereby effectively safeguarding against sophisticated bots and automated scripts.
Legitimate users are able to experience a seamless and invisible user experience. The incidence of fraud, spam, and abuse is mitigated. By electing Friendly Captcha Enterprise as a enterprise CAPTCHA, organizations are making a significant contribution to the advancement of an open and inclusive web for all.
Friendly Captcha Enterprise: User Experience
As an alternative to reCAPTCHA Enterprise, Friendly Captcha Enterprise is designed to be truly invisible. It never presents puzzles to the end users that must be solved manually such as clicking on traffic lights or bikes.
The modern proof-of-work approach is based on the use of cryptographic puzzles that can be scaled. The difficulty of the cryptographic puzzles is increased in a dynamically way, which effectively thwarts the efforts of advanced bots.
While the background puzzle is being solved unnoticed by the user’s device, the user proceeds to complete the requisite web form. Many users are unaware that Friendly Captcha is being used. The user is able to submit the form without delay, thus ensuring an uninterrupted and optimal user experience.
| Feature | reCAPTCHA Enterprise | Friendly Captcha Enterprise |
|---|---|---|
|
Advanced Bot Protection |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Image labelling tasks |
No |
No |
|
Truly Invisible CAPTCHA |
No |
Yes |
|
International Third Country Transfer |
Yes |
No |
|
User Data Storage |
Yes |
No |
|
Cookie Usage |
Yes |
No |
|
CAPTCHA Accessibility |
Yes |
Yes |
Conclusion: Choosing the Best Enterprise CAPTCHA
In the end, let’s take a recap of this article’s comprehensive evaluation of reCAPTCHA Enterprise and clarify the question of how businesses can find the best enterprise CAPTCHA.
In evaluating the suitability of reCAPTCHA Enterprise, it is essential to consider both the technical sophistication and the broader organizational requirements that it meets.
reCAPTCHA Enterprise’s security advantage and, at the same time, its disadvantage is its customized risk assessment. Based on different risk scores, organizations can define individual defensive actions, such as manual image recognition tasks or the complete blocking of an actor. However, manual tasks lead to usability and accessibility issues while unintentionally blocked human actors lead to false positives.
This is why large organizations increasingly switch to different enterprise CAPTCHA solutions such as Friendly Captcha Enterprise. Friendly Captcha Enterprise employs a privacy-centric and GDPR compliant CAPTCHA strategy that minimizes data collection and offers an alternative for organizations that prioritize compliance with strict privacy regulations. Its truly invisible background CAPTCHA mechanism represents an optimal bot protection while simultaneously maintaining a fully accessible and frictionless user experience.
The use of reCAPTCHA Enterprise leads to a considerable administrative burden, a high false positive rate, privacy compliance questions and accessibility issues. Consequently, when choosing an enterprise CAPTCHA, Friendly Captcha Enterprise is an optimal choice for those who prioritize privacy, user experience and accessibility. To ensure a balanced and effective enterprise CAPTCHA solution, it is essential to align the choice with both security priorities and compliance requirements.
Protect your organization with Friendly Captcha Enterprise just like Porsche, Aldi, Doctolib and the European Union have done before. Friendly Captcha Enterprise includes high-end security, scalability, and compliance with specialized support for enterprises. Request a personalized demo for Friendly Captcha Enterprise.
FAQ
reCAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA Enterprise are differentiated by features and pricing. reCAPTCHA Enterprise is a customizable and paid version of reCAPTCHA tailored for enterprises. It provides security features, risk analysis, and protection against threats such as credential stuffing and account takeover. Unlike the free version, reCAPTCHA Essentials, it offers more levels of bot score granularity and tries to fit in the enterprise security infrastructure.
In the context of enterprise settings, the utility of reCAPTCHA Enterprise is debatable. Despite the efficacy of Google reCAPTCHA as a bot protection service, its inherent limitations render it unsuitable for use by website operators and customers alike. A lack of data protection, basic security features, limited accessibility, and a poor user experience are just a few examples of the shortcomings of this system. For this reason, enterprises that prioritize privacy, security, and inclusion tend to favor modern enterprise CAPTCHA providers such as Friendly Captcha.
Similar to reCAPTCHA Essentials and reCAPTCHA Standard, reCAPTCHA Enterprise employs machine learning and the assessment of extensive personal user data to analyze user behavior. Based on this evaluation, Google reCAPTCHA estimates the probability of malicious bot activity. Subsequently, companies often implement additional measures in accordance with the level of risk score, such as integrating an image recognition task from Google reCAPTCHA v2.
The pricing for reCAPTCHA Enterprise is based on usage and varies depending on the volume of transactions and the specific security needs of your business. In this article, there is a sample calculation comparing the pricing of reCAPTCHA Enterprise with online support or personal support.
