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Google “Captcha” Issue

So there was a discussion on this topic last year that was unresolved and had 419 “me too’s” in this. Google keeps throwing the following at me (along with information like IP address and time, etc)

I read that Google will throw this at an IP address that has “unusual traffic” (which may indicate my iPhone has malware?? I keep up with updates and do not have a cracked iPhone, so this shouldn’t be occurring) - OR - it is due to a private relay.

I am a bit of an iPhone junkie (I suppose that is the term) but I am, by no means, a techie. I believe the iPhone does have some sort of natural VPN (I do not have one active according to settings and it is not from my wifi, which I confirmed with my desktop which loves to notify me that I am in dire need of a VPN when I barely use it past playing a game or two) to it as it often tells Google I am in a different city? This has been something I noticed in different iPhones. It could be google just cannot keep up with the built in iPhone’s security settings.


I wanted to ask, as there is more concern on the former—rather than the latter… Is anyone else experiencing, or continuing to experience, this issue from Google on their iPhones?


(I think I started seeing this on my last phone after updating to the last iOS 14 update before they updated to iOS 15. But could have been only after the iOS 15 update. It was definitely after 2020- which was the year the last person I found posted their complaint/question that sounded similar. This only increased my concern on potential hidden malware… However; countering my own concern is the fact that when this started I had not downloaded/clicked on anything harmful on accident from messages. It is possible that I may have done so at a previous date and I’ve had malware sitting in a sandbox and had been bouncing around for a while until an update happened that allowed it through a back door, but no way for me to find out if this is actually the case or not.)


Closing Safari and re-opening does normally fix this temporarily, even clearing cache as well, but it returns randomly regardless. Sometimes back-to-back. (I use google frequently for random inquires. “How does [this] work…?” Or “Where do I find [this item] in [this game]…?” That sort of thing.) Is there a more permanent solution? Or perhaps an idea of what’s going on that might put my mind at ease?

iPhone 13 Pro Max, iOS 15

Posted on Jan 13, 2022 7:40 AM

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Posted on Feb 23, 2022 6:02 AM

In recent weeks the number of CAPTCHA challenges when trying to do a Google search in Safari has become maddening. Almost every other Google search is stopped with a CAPTCHA. I do have iCloud Private Relay enabled. Since its introduction, I’ve always had it enabled, but I didn’t experiencing an onslaught of CAPTCHAs until recently. Google wants to inconvenience users using iCloud Private Relay to get us to turn it off. I may have to use another search engine.

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Feb 23, 2022 6:02 AM in response to TheWolferz

In recent weeks the number of CAPTCHA challenges when trying to do a Google search in Safari has become maddening. Almost every other Google search is stopped with a CAPTCHA. I do have iCloud Private Relay enabled. Since its introduction, I’ve always had it enabled, but I didn’t experiencing an onslaught of CAPTCHAs until recently. Google wants to inconvenience users using iCloud Private Relay to get us to turn it off. I may have to use another search engine.

Jan 14, 2022 3:55 PM in response to TheWolferz

I started having the same issue this week with my iPad Air after updating the iOS. I read somewhere else that, while private vpns don’t have the captcha tool happen often, Apple’s private relay (in beta) is tripping google’s flags. To “cap” this off, the captcha tool doesn’t work most of the time. So, delete history and content is the only way. Annoying because it happens 3-4 times per day.


TLDR: Apple really (!!!) needs to fix this.

Google “Captcha” Issue

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