As with everything on the internet, this solution had since become obsolete because the people operating the 'bots' started to find ways around these 'checking' processes. So as 'bots' got smarter, so did the efforts to combat them.
The new process now involves something referred to as 'Actions'. When you check the box on our new reCAPTCHA form, that is the last step in a series of behind the scenes tracking efforts being taken to secure your site. This is normal nowadays, and almost all sights use this technology. Previously this type of tracking was only used for marketing purposes on sites, but now it can detect if your behavior is suspicious, so it has been repurposed for security.
How does it work? Google uses your 'Actions' to score your behavior while on the site. For example, all site users have a mouse pattern of movement that is unique to them. If a user like you explores multiple pages on a site, reCAPTCHA tracks that movement, and by the time you decide to register for an account or login, a risk score has been assigned to you. and will determine if the user has to go through a secondary verification process (like sending an email to confirm your are using your own email address), or if you can just simply check the box on the form and be let in to the database. There are a myriad of factors that go into calculating if your score passes our determined 'threshold' for the network, and that process allows our sites to stay secure. This allows us to focus on what we do best, and we are happy to let google do the extremely complicated work of identifying and blocking 'bad actors'!
