Archive
The Google+’s Nym Probe – Isn’t it a Scam to Change Agreements Unilaterally and Retroactively?
"if you're not paying for something, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold" (Clik on the image to read)
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. Update: Changed the title from initial
“I’ve Never Subscribed to either Buzz or Google+ but My Google Private Profiles ‘re Unilaterally and Retroactively Published, then Dumped, Now Will Be Suspended?”
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“The act of creating deliberately
confusing jargon and user-interfaces
which trick your users into sharing
more info about themselves than
they really want to”
Definition of Privacy Zuckering
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It has become appallingly obvious that
our technology has exceeded our humanity.
~Albert Einstein
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The evolution of sense is,
in a sense, the evolution of nonsense
~Vladimir Nabokov
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After reading the Stilgherrian’s “Right, Google, you stupid cunts, this is simply not on!”,
I’ve decided to write what have been bothering me for the very long time – that is, the ubiquitous internet practice of unilateral and retroactive changing of agreements.
And ,”naturally”, without any previous notice, with the notice about possible changes without any notice in the same ToS as well as the big disclaimer part on waiving any guarantees or responsibilities
User agrees with ToS, while signing in, so it is the bi-lateral agreement. If s/he’s not likes conditions, he would not have subscribed.
But then s/he spends time, work, personal and business connections, acquires habits because he (presumable) trust to provider of an online service.
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Read more by clicking here…
Lies, Big Lies and Statistics of KeyCAPTCHA Service Part 1 On the Amount of Protected Sites
History of changes:
- Aug 18, 2011
published this post as password-protected - Sept 2, 2011
KeyCAPTCHA Team changed password to on-line real-time statistics of KeyCAPTCHA services due to publication http://www.shpargalko.ru/2011/09/01/keycaptcha-2 - Nov 6, 2012 – out-dated (or useless without valid password) references and password protection of this article removed
Lies, Big Lies and Statistics on KeyCAPTCHA.com Service.
Part 1. The Claimed by KeyCAPTCHA.com Total Amount of Protected Sites and Those Available to Advertisers
KeyCAPTCHA.com has been misinforming before and CONTINUES to misinform its potential clients and all being involved (bloggers, writers, et al writing about it).
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Fig.1 Screenshot of http://www.keycaptcha.com main webpage
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First, the ToS and descriptions on KeyCAPTCHA website are changing daily but on August 17, 2011, there is still no information whatsoever about availability of or how to use KeyCAPTCHA free of charge without any advertising.
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KeyCAPTCHA.com continues to intermittently (some times with, others without, at least, in my area, I checked from computers of 3 different ISPs) serve the advertising links + advertising puzzle pictures through its service.
Initially, on external forums , KeyCAPTCHA.com vehemently insisted that there will be no more free option without advertising but after unpublishing of KeyCAPTCHA from WordPress.org (on 08/10/2011, republished on 08/16/2011), KeyCAPTCHA.com asserted, without any corresponding changes in ToS or texts on its web site, that absence of free non-ads option was lie.
KeyCAPTCHA probably does not feed advertising (link + puzzle pictures) to visitors outside of Russia because it doesn’t yet have any advertisers interested in markets/audience ads outside of Russia.
See more in my previous article :
If Interested in a Free Service, then Don’t Promote it?
The web site keycaptcha.com (reproduced in screenshot on Fig.1 for the case that it would be changed) misinforms that the network of websites using KeyCAPTCHA and available to advertisers amounts to 15, 000 sites by 13,000 webmasters.
But statistics shows that amount of sites protected by KeyCAPTCHA are <650 and of users <3400 (but really less because discontinuations are not accounted)
Table 1. (Accounts , Sites ) -Summarized - by months
One can directly open summarized by month incremental numbers of new/added/registered SITES + users/accounts Table 1 by clicking this link (Update: the link is removed since there is now no access)
Fig.1. (Accounts , Sites ) -Summarized - by months
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Or, otherwise, from the main interface
(Update: detailed instructions of using stats were removed removed since there is now no access)
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Note that the real amounts is smaller the traced ones since the stats is accumulative. The same site can be added – removed from KeyCAPTCHA service multiple times (or be just removed) but stats increases (reflects the adding of sites only)
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The number of users is more than amount of the sites because:
- it is possible to register without adding sites for protection
- Even more, until recently, it was impossible even to access the most essential introductory info on KeyCAPTCHA without registering
- It is impossible to unregister from keycaptcha.com
- The most of those registered never come back.
Independent Stats Showing the Decreasing Trend of Amount of Sites on Drupal Using KeyCAPTCHA. Note it is real-time final values (not irreversible incrementally added as in prev stats)
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Fig 1. Weekly Usage of KeyCAPTCHA on Drupal Sites (Diagram)
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Table 1. Weekly Usage of KeyCAPTCHA on Drupal Sites
If Interested in a Free Service, then Don’t Promote it?
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Half the work that is done in this world
is to make things appear what they are not
~Beadle, E. R.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic
~Arthur C. Clarke’s 3d Law of Prediction)
But magic can sometimes just be an illusion
~Javan
Belief in the absence of illusions is itself an illusion
~Barbara Harrison
A hallucination is a fact, not an error;
what is erroneous is a judgment based upon it
~Bertrand Russell
So, after a storm of angry publications by unhappy webmasters and uninstalls of KeyCAPTCHA plugings, on August 14, 2011, KeyCAPTCHA.com “announced” (by posting a few replies, for example here and there) that the free of charge option of its service was restored from August 8, 2011 (probably because the last post of KeyCAPTCHA defending its removal was from August 7, 2011, see the same links upward). Novosibirsk time (GMT +6:00) everywhere in this article.
The most funny thing was that there were no changes in ToS or any descriptions on keycaptcha.com webite whatsoever! But wait, there’s more
How to Lie without being Caught-22 (Lessons Learned from Communicating with KeyCAPTCHA.com)
Wisdom says that a liar should have a good memory. Not true on the internet, it is enough to manage to change or remove your previous publications.
I and others caught KeyCAPTCHA.com, my former employer, to publicly lie hundreds times and you will not find any such publications.
From my observations, the posts on the forums based on WCMSs (Web Content Management System) like
- vBulletin – permits changes
- phpBB - - permits changes
- SMF (SimpleMachines Forums) – permits delete
- Drupal
- Twitter (well, it is probably not WCMS and permits only to delete tweets but I hate Twitter no less for having permitted to slander and scam me by this feature)
usually let to change posts later, even after replies, whenever an author likes.
While on
- WordPress
- Joomla (after being replied?)
- IPB (aka IP.Board, InvsionPower Board) Services, how one should tag it in Social Media, I wonder?
do not (but only in a few minutes time immediately after posting) .
CSS Tutorials
What’s the point of permitting life-time changing (or deleting) what some has written, even after having dozens replies, I wonder?
One can check the forum’s CMS at the bottom of a web page and double-check it at webpage souce finding a string “generator”. Here is an example of HTML element from WordPress forum HTML-element:
- <meta name=”generator” content=”WordPress 3.2″ />
What about comments in blogs and posts that cannot be edited/deleted?
Shit stolen from http://trupokarudos.com/?attachment_id=3442
That’s also simple. KeyCAPTCHA Team has done it many times. It is enough post personal attacks on a participant the more and uglier the “better” until any sense is lost, then ask moderators, administrators/owner of the blog to delete the whole topic or branch for a flame and/or off-topic.
100% results of topic ensured to delete a thread, branch or a whole topic!
If the results are not immediate, just return and do it again and again.
08/19/2011 Update:
In Soviet Russia, spam activity of spam-captchas block human's access (We have detected spam activity, your actions are blocked)
Hilarious confirmation of this shit-technique employed by KeyCAPTCHA itself.
Read all thread!
“We have detected spam activity, your actions are blocked”
In Soviet Russia, spam activity of spam-captchas block human’s access
Another technique is to block writers (blog commenters) through its KeyCAPTCHA by IP-address.
This is very clever to self-advertise you, only fans of KeyCAPTCHA and advertising will be able to use internet soon.
How I was KeyCAPTCHAured: a Story of Scammed KeyCAPTCHA.com Ex-Employee
His business, his website, his KeyCAPTCHA - what about users and employees?
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“If u are not paying for it,
you’re not the customer;
you’re the product being sold”
~Andrew Lewis
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I am a former “employee” of KeyCAPTCHA.com “company”, having worked for it since 11 Dec, 2010 till May, 2011.
I believe that users of KeyCAPTCHA.com external antispam service will be better informed if they know my story of relations with persons providing KeyCAPTCHA service
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Debunking KeyCAPTCHA Myths (3d-party publications)
It’s non-marketed (non-paid, non-promoted and often deleted at request of KeyCAPTCHA Team) point of view on keycaptcha.com services.
Judge yourself.
I am only citing the publications of others (to which I have no relation or involvement) or easily verifiable on the internet data.
I even do not publish my info on keycaptcha.com scams as insider (and former employee) of keycaptcha.com
Antispam KeyCAPTCHA.com is being reported as known spammer:
- keycaptcha.com Email address is in blacklist of known spammers (of services from which is impossible or difficult to unsubscribe)
Source (in Russian) with the list of spamming Emails/services:
http://vkontakte.ru/wall109343155_2583 - “looks like harvesting of post addresses. Impossible to download… You completed the task incorrectly. You completed the task incorrectly” (translated from Russian)
http://joomlaforum.ru/index.php/topic,138180.msg882437.html#msg882437 - etc.
Keycaptcha Unpublished from JED (oomla Extension Directory) for Fraud
KeyCAPTCHA plugin contribution is unpublished from:
- From JED (Joomla Extension Directory) for fraudulent voting
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KeyCAPTCHA service plugin is in Joomla.org’s Vulnerable Extension List:
- KeyCAPTCHA Mod was removed from SimpleMachines.org
- etc.
It is not true that KeyCAPTCHA is unbreakable by bots,
as it is being affirmed by keycaptcha.com marketing publications, it is just not being hacked on unpopular web resources. Tthere are hundred of publications debunking KeyCAPTCHA’s invincibility:
- “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but spam on our forum and increased tenfold since installing KeyCAPTCHA.
If anything, it seems less secure than the reCAPTCHA or the Q&A methods (both of which are far from perfect, but seem to cut spam more than KeyCAPTCHA does).
I’ve been deleting spam posts and banning spammers all day for a couple of days now – hundreds of them – since installing this” http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showpost.php?p=2180505&postcount=40 - Cracking of Interactive CAPTCHA (In Russian “Взлом интерактивной CAPTCHA”):
http://webbonews.ru/vzlom-interaktivnoj-captcha/ - “As promising as this looked. Spambots were still able to register”
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=413168.msg3042682#msg3042682 - “This is a pretty lousy captcha, as it wouldn’t exactly be difficult to write a program that could match a piece to a grayscale version of the same image”
http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/exa5e/i_think_this_is_genius_but_i_cant_be_certain/ - I’m using Spam-O-Matic in conjunction with KeyCAPTCHA but neither seem to make any difference as far as spammer signups go (vBulletin)
- etc.
KeyCAPTCHA being Uninstalled and Replaced by Other Antispam Solution(s) on hundreds webresources due its to technical or usability problems:
- “@ECOTOX We just switched to another CAPTCHA extension, Keycaptcha seems to be giving problems”
http://twitter.com/#!/RootzWiki/status/84137528520744961
- KeyCAPTCHA replaced by less problematic & more intuitive anti-spam solution
Source (in Russian): http://vkontakte.ru/wall-27039534_10 - Forum Captcha (was KeyCAPTCHA, then uninstalled) does not work on Android, Windows Phone 7 App…
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1019885
- “Removed KeyCAPTCHA Installed @GrowMap’s Anti-Spambot Plugin Happy! http://www.growmap.com/growmap-anti-spambot-plugin #WordPress #Spam “
Source: http://twitter.com/#!/luxEffect/status/79158049574617088
- etc.
Non-Usability & User Un-Friendliness of Interactive CAPTCHAs
And interactive captchas cannot support the blind.
Might be this is my lie and slander but I could not find any publications proving the opposite.
- “If I had to register a new account right now, I don’t think I would because that keycaptcha shit is too hard”
http://cheatingnetwork.net/forums/suggestions/91746-get-rid-spammers.html#post836727
“Apparently Keycaptcha isn’t working too well. I still suggest requiring like 10 posts to make a thread”
http://cheatingnetwork.net/forums/suggestions/91746-get-rid-spammers.html#post837912 - “May I also present something half as disasterously unusable: the KeyCAPTCHA https://www.keycaptcha.com. I couldn’t get past it :s”
http://twitter.com/#!/MattehFox/status/91255810654609409
- 2011/07/07
“keycaptcha.com - holy shit”
http://twitter.com/#!/FabianBeiner/status/88969542017105920 - 2011/06/24
“@RootzWiki I have been trying to register for 30min now and it wont let me, keeps telling me my captcha is wrong =/” http://twitter.com/#!/ECOTOX/status/84123162270380032
” @KeyCAPTCHA Ubuntu & Windows in Chrome, Firefox, & Internet Explorer on 2 desktops & laptop, put picture together but always said its wrong “
http://twitter.com/#!/ECOTOX/status/84177076537659392 - 2011/06/04
“KeyCAPTCHA – causes me wild butthurt, been trying to pass it during 5 min in vain, no way”
Translated from Russian:
“KeyCAPTCHA – какой-то дикий батхерт доставляет, тыкаю ее уже минут пять, не выходит ни рожна”
https://twitter.com/#!/skurudo/status/76981537681321984 - Idiotic Capthas (ыйе6анутейшая капча)
http://dle.in.ua/forum/topic_8534/#post-62364 - “Interactive CAPTCHAs: Step forward or backward?” (PDF)
- etc.
LOL:
“I love puzzles. I made 9 accounts!”
Cited from: http://ww.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/exa5e/i_think_this_is_genius_but_i_cant_be_certain/c1boo5w
Cited from: http://joomlaforum.ru/index.php?PHPSESSID=7df383cdc3a55a15eef9216adcc90064&topic=138180.msg752789#msg752789
Gennady
former KeyCAPTCHA Team member
caught by police in cooperation with my former employer (KeyCAPTCHA.com Team) for receiving my salary qualified as extortion
InvisionPower.com Joins Association of Black Employers. I Just Wanted to Tell you, How I Love You, IPS/IPB
If you are curious about the strange date of this article,
please read my:
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KeyCAPTCHA Deceptive Descriptions Distributed Through InvisiobPower Web Sites is Not IPS's Concernt (Not My Job) Credit funvideoworld.com
. Relativity applies to to physics, not ethics
~Albert Einstein
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To avoid the flame and off-topic in public forums, , I tried to privately report on intentional fraudulent misinformation published by anti-spam KeyCAPTCHA.com on Invision Power Services site My private communication (in password protected) ticket WAS SHARED WITH ABUSER (BTW, currently bullying and sueing me criminally my ex-employer KeyCAPTCHA.com), click and see the excerpt below in red. So, I have a few questions:
- What is the sense to block 3d party posts, opinions, reports, feedback on websites ? How can such information, software provided by InvisionPower Services Inc. be trusted if any critics is blocked and ignored?
- Is it ethical to allude in password protected private communication and then to copy it to abuser?
Shocked to Find that an Article Can Be Published with Any Date Irrespectively on the Time of Its Creation (Authorship, BlackHat Web Scraping, SEO Ranking Problems?!)
This post is really created on Sept 15, 2011
but WordPress permits to change publication date
Isn’t it confusing for priority authorship disputes as well as for determining who webscraped, stole?
Note that the link of article still shows:
- http://keycaptchaured.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/private-testing-the-link-generation-and-public-visibility-of-wp-com-blog-article-during-status-updatespending-review-draft-with-public-visibility
i.e. Jul 10, 2011, the date of I indicated during 1st publishing which I later changed to Jul 10, 2001 while I created it on Sept 15, 2011
Now it is published with
- Status: Published
Other choices I’ve tested:
Published – Pending Review – Draft - Visibility: Public
Other choices I’ve tested:
Public – Password Protected – Private
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Initial title:
Testing Link Generation and Public Visibility of WP.com Blog Post During Status (Published – Pending Review – Draft) and Visibility (Public – Password Protected – Private)
Antispam KeyCAPTCHA.com Email Spam
We Are on KeyCAPTCHA.com's Mailing List (Credit to michellehenry.fr)
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This is funny.
Professional spammers and blackhat profiteers openly boast that they own KeyCAPTCHA.com antispam protection.
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It was an open secret for a very long time that its support@keycaptcha.com is in list of known spammers (difficult or impossible to unsubscribe from a service once subscribed) as well as there were reports that KeyCAPTCHA.com’s antispam protection collects Emails.. .
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I’ve got a 3d-party Email confirming this (I leave contacts as they are publicly available on the internet)
Check out this email I got today. I don’t recall signing up for their service.
Gloria
Gloria Rand
SEO Copywriter & Social Media Consultant
(786)942-8321
gloria@gloriarand.com
Turning Keywords into… Copy that Clicks!
Authorized 1&1 Hosting Affiliate
Follow me on Facebook
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Read my blog
———- Original Message ———-
From: KeyCAPTCHA <support@keycaptcha.com>
To: gloria@gloriarand.com
Date: September 8, 2011 at 7:33 AM
Subject: Changes in KeyCAPTCHA Terms of Service
Please, get to know with the updated Terms of Service at www.keycaptcha.com
For more information on amount of your income, click here .
Ad displaying in KeyCAPTCHA at your website(s) will launch on September 12, 2011.
An advertisement in KeyCAPTCHA will be displayed if we have advertisers who are willing to advertise in KeyCAPTCHA at websites whose subject matter suits your website’s subject.
If for some reason you are reluctant to earn money by our service, and you are unwilling to display ads in KeyCAPTCHA at your website, you have to go to your website’s additional settings atwww.keycaptcha.com and turn off ad displaying in KeyCAPTCHA at your website.
We anticipate a long-term and fruitful collaboration.
Best regards,
KeyCAPTCHA
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