Home Forums Networks & Cross-Platform Networking New google issue

Out of the blue, I'm occasionally being taken to this page before my Google search results come up. Sometimes I'm asked to complete a Captcha.

Since the text in the image may be too small to be legible: "Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network. Please try your request again later. Why did this happen?

This page appears when Google automatically detects requests coming from your computer network which appear to be in violation of the Terms of Service. The block will expire shortly after those requests stop.

This traffic may have been sent by malicious software, a browser plug-in, or a script that sends automated requests. If you share your network connection, ask your administrator for help — a different computer using the same IP address may be responsible. Learn more

Sometimes you may see this page if you are using advanced terms that robots are known to use, or sending requests very quickly.

IP address: 2a09:bac2:a626:6e::b:1dc
Time: 2023-12-22T01:13:35Z
URL: https://www.google.com/search?q=nba"

(There are two or three links included in that text which I'll post if asked.)

The block disappears immediately if I finish a Captcha and in short order otherwise.

Nothing has changed in my search habits or patterns, BUT I have turned on iCloud Private Relay. From the little I know about VPNs, though, it seems counterintuitive that PR would be at the root of my problem.

I've now turned PR off (and will try to remember to turn it on and then off again when I'm accessing my financial accounts ).

Could this be some insidious way that Google is trying to induce me to log in, which I never do?

I have a visceral dislike of Google, and for the same reasons that you suggest. I switched my default search engine to DuckDuckGo for that reason.

As much as I hate Google, I prefer their search results to those of DuckDuckGo, so I split the difference by never logging in and denying them the info about me that they most want.

With luck, this new annoyance will go away now that I've turned off Private Relay.

For some bizarre reason, FTM's 30 minute edit window always ends while I'm in the middle of typing my edit. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyhow: And not to completely disdain all the other search engines out there, Arc and Brave as mentioned by joemike in particular, but I just plain haven't got the patience to experiment.

I've been experimenting with DEVONagent Express, which enables me bounce between multiple engines, and so far, nothing beats Google.

I turned iCloud Private Relay off a few days ago, and Google stopped bothering me.

I downloaded and apprehensively turned on the Malwarebytes Privacy VPN, and so far that hasn't backfired on me...no Google issues, nor does it block my access to Amazon as did PR.

I'll now cancel iCloud+, because it doesn't offer anything that I need.

I still don't understand why PR messed with Google. It seems counterintuitive. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I spoke too soon, I guess.

Google just annoyed me for the first time in days with Private Relay turned off but Malwarebytes VPN turned on.

I was doing quite a bit of searching, so maybe that provoked it.

Try turning off all of your content blockers and any anti-tracking requests and/or extensions. Google is planning to release an anti-tracking version of Chrome this month. You may be encountering an effort on Google's part to replace that income stream by pushing users to voluntarily accept tracking and content blocking.

Thanks for the suggestion, but so far, it's not enough of an annoyance to go to such an extreme.

I'll play it by ear and see how it goes.

I originally conjectured that Google may be trying to induce me to log in, so maybe that's part of what's going on.

Nobody else has reported the issue, though???