Cloudflare releases alternative to CAPTCHAs

Cloudflare has released an alternative to CAPTCHAs designed to act as a user-friendly alternative verification method.

The company has made its new Turnstile solution freely available for any website operator to incorporate whether they are using Cloudflare or not.

Turnstile uses a rotating suite of automated, non-interactive browser challenges to detect whether there is a human user behind a website request. The technology has enabled Cloudflare to reduce visitor time spent on a challenge from an average of 32 seconds to an average of just one second.

Cloudflare co-founder and CEO Matthew Price said the new solution has the potential to dramatically reduce the time and frustration spent trying to solve CAPTCHA challenges. It is estimated that collectively 500 years per day are wasted trying to solve CAPTCHAs.

“Cloudflare is taking one of the most hated pieces of Internet technology, and making it easier, more secure, and more private for everyone to use,” Price said.

“Similar to our 1.1.1.1 app that makes every user and the Internet safer, we’re excited to share Turnstile with developers of any size and anywhere, for an improved and more private end user experience.”

As well as its browser challenges, Turnstile recognises Private Access Tokens from users on the latest versions of macOS or iOS, allowing Turnstile to validate a device with the help of the device member without the need to collect or store user device data.

Image credit: iStock.com/Cosminxp Cosmin