Most of us will have had to solve challenge-response tests – such as selecting all images containing a certain object – known as CAPTCHAs, to prove that we are human. This technology has been used to block bots for decades and is implemented on some of the world’s most popular websites. However, a rise in bugs in some CAPTCHA systems, as well as cheap workarounds which can solve and circumnavigate them, means that platforms are seeking new ways to verify their users.
As a result, Cloudflare – one of the world’s largest content delivery networks and infrastructure platforms – have announced a new project which aims to replace the old CAPTCHA system: Turnstile.
Turnstile will be available to website owners for free, whether or not they are already a Cloudflare customer. Their new technology will seek to address the inherent problems, which the company has previously noted with CATCHPAs, including poor accessibility for visually impaired users, cultural bias, high data usage on mobile devices, and fees for website owners.
Turnstile will work by choosing from a rotating list of “browser challenges” to verify online visitors and block bot traffic. Rather than requiring users to solve a puzzle, the new technology will determine what type of challenge to issue, using previous visits and behaviour to aid it. This is similar to how Google’s latest version of CAPTCHAs work, called reCAPTCHA Version 3. It will be interesting to see the uptake of Cloudflare’s solution when Google’s is already strongly embedded in the web.
Cloudflare has been successfully using Turnstile instead of CATCHPAs itself for several months – and now they’re ready to give other companies the chance to use it too.