Google wants you to prove you're human with a controversial new reCAPTCHA challenge

A couple of months back, Google made a change to its reCAPTCHA system, requiring Android phones to have Google Play Services version 25.41.30 or higher installed. While not a big deal for most Android owners, the change is a big problem for those running GrapheneOS or other de-Googled operating systems. Staying on the topic of reCAPTCHA, the tech giant is testing a new check that relies on your hand.

As Google explains in its documentation, this new check uses hand gestures for verification. The company says it “analyzes one or more videos of a user’s hand as they perform various actions or gestures,” like a wave. It will decide if the user is real or fake by extracting “hand landmark data” from the video.

If you trigger the challenge, the system will request access to your webcam. As mentioned earlier, it will then prompt you to perform various actions and gestures. From there, Google’s machine learning model will take over, mapping 21 hand-knuckle coordinates. In a situation where you fail or are unable to complete the task, reCAPTCHA will switch over to the old visual and audio puzzles.

The firm says that the videos captured are “never associated with a user’s identity.” Additionally, it states that no audio is recorded and that videos are deleted after the verification process. However, it also adds that the “information Google collects is used and stored in accordance with the Google Privacy Policy.” So it’s a little unclear whether data is actually being stored or not.

According to Tom’s Hardware, testers have already found ways to beat the verification process. It appears that something as simple as a stock image of a person waving into an OBS Virtual Camera was enough to fool the system. As a result, it doesn’t appear that hand gesture verification is particularly useful at this stage.