iOS 16 versus Captcha
“I’m not a robot” – Apple wants to ban annoying picture puzzles from the Internet
“I’m not a robot” – if you click on the so-called Captchas, you will sometimes get very complicated picture puzzles.
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Captchas, i.e. the small picture puzzles that you have to solve in order to visit a website, are absolutely annoying. With iOS 16, Apple wants to help gradually eliminate annoying queries from everyday life.
In addition to cookie banners, so-called captchas are probably one of the most hated Internet plagues that you encounter almost every day. And even if the name doesn’t mean anything to you: you know what is meant. The little queries as to whether you are a robot when you try to visit a website.
Sometimes a tick is enough, sometimes you have to solve several picture puzzles and click on which picture shows a bus or a traffic light, for example. In the worst case, you should be able to recognize letters and numbers that are slapped on the screen completely illegibly. No more – says Apple.
A new iOS setting makes it possible
In a video published by the iPhone manufacturer during the WWDC developer conference, an Apple employee shows what awaits us in the future. With the new iPhone and iPad operating system iOS 16 or iPadOS 16, the queries are to disappear in a first step on certain websites and in some apps. According to the tech magazine “Engadget”, the technology will later become an open standard, meaning it will also be available to other smartphone manufacturers.
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It works like this: In the settings there will be a menu item called “Automatic verification”. This allows iCloud to verify you and your device in the background when you visit compatible websites. Apple solves this using a so-called “private access token”, which communicates with the other party via a secure connection, but does not share your personal data. If the function is active, simply skip a captcha.
Open standard, Apple invites providers
Apple was able to win the Captcha providers Cloudflare and Fastly as the first partners, and they already cover a large part of the common picture puzzles. Other query providers may sign up for the new Apple feature at a later date.
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A first public beta version of iOS and iPadOS 16 is expected in July, the final version will probably follow in the fall when Apple traditionally presents the new iPhone models. From which test version the “automatic verification” is on board is open.
Captcha is an acronym for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. The queries help website providers to prevent automatic access by bot networks and avoid fraud.