Why is Google showing me the "unusual traffic" CAPTCHA on my private network?
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CuriousCat42
I've recently started encountering Google's "unusual traffic" CAPTCHA when I search in private or incognito windows. This behavior is new for me since I've done this countless times before without any issues. I'm not using a VPN or public Wi-Fi, and my ISP doesn't use CGNAT. I'm concerned, though, because one of the reasons for this message can be malware. I've already run Malwarebytes on my devices, and everything came back clean, but this situation is stressing me out. After some testing, I found that the CAPTCHA doesn't appear on other devices, but it does when I connect to a different network.
Answers
I started experiencing this issue today too, and it's happening whether I’m on private or normal browsing windows. It's so frustrating!
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Have you checked what browser you're using? Are you getting the CAPTCHA in regular browsing as well? Malware could definitely be a reason, but it's not the only possibility. If someone in your home plays mobile games, sometimes those apps can have SDKs that allow your connection to be used in a way that triggers this CAPTCHA. It's worth considering!
CuriousCat42: I'm using Chrome and Edge, and I only see the CAPTCHA in private/incognito mode. I do have someone in the house who plays mobile games, but they haven’t downloaded anything recently.
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TechLover99: Same here! I noticed it today on multiple browsers, including Chrome and Brave. Malwarebytes didn’t detect anything suspicious for me either.