The beauty of AI is that it's likely no human can say precisely why two similar users might get a different classification.

I'm not saying the browser isn't a factor, or that Google isn't anti-consumer, or anything else. The original comment didn't say they were caught up in some unobservable AI machination. They made a pretty straightforward observation mentioning only two conditions: Google bounces them when using Firefox. From that, they jumped to a pretty straightforward conclusion— Google transparently harasses Firefox users to advance their corporate strategy.

I'm not going to jump through hoops to prove a negative, but correlation does not imply causation.

My empirical observation: For many years I have constantly used Google search on FF with many machines and networks, logged in and not, in private mode and not, with all existing privacy features enabled and no extensions beyond a password manager. Napkin math conservatively estimates I've conducted 200k searches minimum using this combo. I've consistently encountered suspicious activity challenges when using overcrowded proxies, NAT'd networks and VPNs. Removing those factors has never failed to stop the challenges. Ever.

I'm confident the poster's observations are accurate. My observation does not directly contradicts their observation, but it does contradicts their conclusion. I wouldn't be surprised if other factors like JS being enabled, cookie settings, plugins that affected those things, number of other users on their network, or even the public IP range they fall under would affect it.

...and the beauty of the Internet is that there's really no way to be sure people are being genuine...

Which is why it's better to believe people until you have a clear reason not to, in case they are genuine.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_charity

It's not that important whether these reports are genuine or not. The important point is that many people are not surprised by these reports. Google has long failed people's trust in them.

Long time Firefox user and HNer here.

I've at least been "captchaed" in Firefox. While being logged in with my Gmail account from 2005.

I've been "captchaed" with Chrome, so I'm not sure the anecdotes amount to much.

That's interesting and useful to know and I decide to believe you.

BTW: Yes, I absolutely noticed that you said this above:

> ...and the beauty of the Internet is that there's really no way to be sure people are being genuine...

My point is, unless the claims of the others are outrageous or we have something very specific to point at, I don't think voicing these kind of thoughts do much good.

tbf, that is the beauty of people in general and not the Internet

I have had the same experience the previous commenter had when I'm on my phone. It would happen quite randomly and sometimes the captcha hell would resolve and I could go back to normal search, while other times it would go into infinite loop. Check back in an hour and you're fine. It's a disaster and at times like these I am so glad there's at least some competition I can go to for search.

I get it ln firefox without a VPN with my own IP owner by a reputable ISP. On a pixel phone with google DNS.

On a VPN I do not get it, so the last couple of weeks I have been making heavy use of my mullvad account.

Edit: however. I only store cookies for fastmail and hacker news and do not allow JS on many sites.

That would make sense, Google can easily track you if you always use the same IP. It's their business, they track you and sell your data so they can provide their product for "free".