[or-cvs] r23280: {website} revise the google captcha entry (website/trunk/en)

[Roger Dingledine]

Author: arma
Date: 2010-09-22 02:01:49 +0000 (Wed, 22 Sep 2010)
New Revision: 23280

Modified:
   website/trunk/en/faq.wml
Log:
revise the google captcha entry


Modified: website/trunk/en/faq.wml
===================================================================
--- website/trunk/en/faq.wml	2010-09-22 01:47:56 UTC (rev 23279)
+++ website/trunk/en/faq.wml	2010-09-22 02:01:49 UTC (rev 23280)
@@ -919,28 +919,25 @@
 
 <p>
 This is a known and intermittent problem; it does not mean that Google
-considers Tor to be spyware. Instead, Google tries to detect certain
-kinds of spyware or viruses that send distinctive queries to Google
-Search. It then notes the IP addresses from which those queries are
-received, and tries to warn the users of those IP addresses that it
-received queries indicating an infection.
+considers Tor to be spyware.
 </p>
 
 <p>
-When you use Tor, you are sending queries through exit nodes that are also
-shared by thousands of other users. If some of those users are infected
-with software that Google detects, Google may mistakenly conclude that
-the exit nodes themselves are infected (because the requests appeared
-to originate from the exit nodes) and, for a limited period of time,
-will try (incorrectly) to warn all Google users who share an exit node
-with an infected machine that they are themselves infected.
+When you use Tor, you are sending queries through exit relays that are also
+shared by thousands of other users. Tor users typically see this message
+when many Tor users are querying Google in a short period of time. Google
+interprets the high volume of traffic from a single IP address (the exit
+relay you happened to pick) as somebody trying to "crawl" their website,
+so it slows down traffic from that IP address for a short time.
 </p>
 
 <p>
-You may also get this sort of message when lots of Tor users are querying
-Google in a short period of time. Google interprets the high volume of
-traffic as somebody trying to "crawl" their website, so it slows down
-traffic from that IP address for a short time.
+An alternate explanation is that Google tries to detect certain
+kinds of spyware or viruses that send distinctive queries to Google
+Search. It notes the IP addresses from which those queries are received
+(not realizing that they are Tor exit relays), and tries to warn any
+connections coming from those IP addresses that recent queries indicate
+an infection.
 </p>
 
 <p>
@@ -950,11 +947,9 @@
 </p>
 
 <p>
-If we think of a measure that would prevent users from seeing this sort of
-spurious warning message, we will certainly suggest it to Google and to
-other web site developers. There may also be technical workarounds for
-Tor end-users affected by this problem; if you find a useful workaround
-and write up a description of it, please let us know.
+Torbutton 1.2.5 (released in mid 2010) detects Google captchas and can
+automatically redirect you to a more Tor-friendly search engine such as
+Ixquick or Bing.
 </p>
 
 <hr />