I violated Google's Terms of Service

[guest00459]

Hello everyone,
Although I'm not trying to mislead you with a catchy header then failing subsequently to deliver a meaty scenario, I am quite concerned with a possibly benign subject that I seek to absolve.
Recently I was given a "wag of the finger" by a Google moderating service (bot I assume) akin to a policeman's written warning. It contained the IP address of my phone, and informed me of suspicious activity taking place by said address through the phone directly or a unknown third party. I immediately scanned my computers for malware and came up empty handed, followed closely by my Droid. What gives? Searches of mine range anywhere from 'Guides for GIMP' all the way to 'Jenna Jameson,' but never through the paths traveled by truly malicious users. What combination of perfectly average searches could tip the scales of such a large database of seemingly anonymous users over to one such as my self specifically?

Thanks in advance

B

 

[UrbanBounca]

Can they give you more information? I would be questioning them for hard proof of something.

 

[Martin030908]

Your gmail account, by default, has web history enabled.

You can go onto you Google Account settings and under 'My Products' select "Web History".

from there you can view you entire web history and see if there's any sites visited that you don't recognize to start...

 

[Slevinn]

Are you positive this email is legitimate and not some farfetch'd scam? Is the IP address and stuff legitimate?

 

[dezymond]

i wonder if that email was legit.

I would imagine it's pretty hard for Google to keep track of everything each user does.

Do you torrent or anything like that? Those kinds of things are illegal and will get you in trouble. Downloading newer movies especially.

legit or not, don't take it lightly. i'm sure you know there are pretty harsh consequences to illegal activity on the internet, just be careful about what you do online.

 

[Jim 777]

I think it might have come over with some of the Jenna Jamison pics. you can forward them to me and I'll look them over for you, you know, just to make sure you don't have some malware.

 

[guest00459]

@Martin
I was curious about that, but I went to my settings and looked for the web history. It said I had the option to enable it, rather than it being enabled by default. However I will try your method and see if it has a different history setting.
@Slevinn and Dezymond
It wasn't an email per say, but more of a "stop and do this" sort of screen prior to being allowed to search. I was taken aback at the time so I didn't copy down the IP address it cited. However I'm positive it didn't come from any of my computers. Does the droid have a dynamic IP? I do torrent, but only at my ole gal's home since she has much faster internet than I. Although I don't believe I torrent any more than anyone else that shares via a torrent site. As far as a dedicated google search for torrents, they are out of the question. I know my sites and I poke around in their servers rather than using Google to diversify the dynamics of searches.
@Jim
Riiiggghhht....hey you never know they might become a rare commodity since she is on a skanky sabbatical. Haha!

Thanks all

B

 

[dezymond]

@Martin
I was curious about that, but I went to my settings and looked for the web history. It said I had the option to enable it, rather than it being enabled by default. However I will try your method and see if it has a different history setting.
@Slevinn and Dezymond
It wasn't an email per say, but more of a "stop and do this" sort of screen prior to being allowed to search. I was taken aback at the time so I didn't copy down the IP address it cited. However I'm positive it didn't come from any of my computers. Does the droid have a dynamic IP? I do torrent, but only at my ole gal's home since she has much faster internet than I. Although I don't believe I torrent any more than anyone else that shares via a torrent site. As far as a dedicated google search for torrents, they are out of the question. I know my sites and I poke around in there servers rather than using Google to diversify the dynamics of searches.
@Jim
Riiiggghhht....hey you never know they might become a rare commodity since she is on a skanky sabbatical. Haha!

Thanks all

B

That is very interesting. I don't recall any app or search engine that has any sort of warning, especially with one that displays an ip address. Was it a warning box that looked exactly like how your OS does (my case black/grey box with white lettering)?

Like I said before, legit or not, tone down on what you search online. Again, there are some serious consequences especially if you violated terms of service or anything illegal.

If it shows up again, please write down what it says, but hide the last few digits of your ip address (just in case). Maybe someone else in here got the same warning and will be able to clarify things for all of us

 

[guest00459]

@ Dezymond
Here it is in all of its glory!

"To continue, please type the characters below:
[STANDARD CAPTCHA]

About this page:
Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network. This page checks to see if it's really you sending the requests, and not a robot. Why did this happen? <--(link)
IP address: 67.xxx.xx.xx
Time: 2010-12-29T20:30:56Z
URL: inception book - Google Search"

Again this is very strange to me. I'm glad though it was a page that could be saved in my web history.
More on my torrenting though; I only use my computer (mac) with a completely different IP address to download things every once in a while. As I said before I usually do so at my lady's house, and its frequency is rare at best. If I'd have to guess I have downloaded a total of 5 to 7 GB in total over the course of my escapades. Further, if it had generated the IP address of my mac there would be much more cause for concern as related to this subject. So for Google to have a trend of my search behavior made via my hand-held is quite odd, as it's more sound an assumption to suspect a computer that's actually downloading things rather than a phone that's not. Due to this scenario I'd eliminate torrenting as raising a red flag in the direction of my mobile. I'm baffled!
Is it possible for my behavior via Google to establish a certain trend, then have my phone be the last push that topples the cards?

B

 

[dezymond]

@ Dezymond
Here it is in all of its glory!

"To continue, please type the characters below:
[STANDARD CAPTCHA]

About this page:
Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network. This page checks to see if it's really you sending the requests, and not a robot. Why did this happen? <--(link)
IP address: 67.xxx.xx.xx
Time: 2010-12-29T20:30:56Z
URL: inception book - Google Search"

Again this is very strange to me. I'm glad though it was a page that could be saved in my web history.
More on my torrenting though; I only use my computer (mac) with a completely different IP address to download things every once in a while. As I said before I usually do so at my lady's house, and its frequency is rare at best. If I'd have to guess I have downloaded a total of 5 to 7 GB in total over the course of my escapades. Further, if it had generated the IP address of my mac there would be much more cause for concern as related to this subject. So for Google to have a trend of my search behavior made via my hand-held is quite odd, as it's more sound an assumption to suspect a computer that's actually downloading things rather than a phone that's not. Due to this scenario I'd eliminate torrenting as raising a red flag in the direction of my mobile. I'm baffled!
Is it possible for my behavior via Google to establish a certain trend, then have my phone be the last push that topples the cards?

B

What browser are you using?

I just used my browser (stock) and went to google and looked up 'inception book' and didn't get any type of warning. I then cleared my cache and then also searched it again, nothing. I tried a third time on my wifi network and still no luck.

your case is truly puzzling. I've never seen any type of warning like that. This obviously has nothing to do with your computer so like you said we can rule that out. When you're searching is it through 3g or wireless?

Unusual traffic from your computer, or in this case your Droid, means you've downloaded or visited a questionable site multiple times. How much data have you used this month already? Yes there are rumors of a 5gb cap, but there isn't. It's just that 5gb/mo is hard to go through if you're just using your phone for basic browsing an all that, could be a trend that Verizon noticed and that you have high traffic every month

 

[l8nitesurfer]

The error u are seing is related to a large number of simliar searches and is nothing to worry about. These are more common in a large corp. Network as you have a vast number of users hitting googles servers from the same ip address.

If you want more clarification on this please provide details of your isp and type of connection....ie dsl att, cable on cox....or some university.


In any event I see this message sometimes 4 or 5 times a day at work....(I am sys admin for a large military corp.)

Sent from my Moto Droid using DroidForums App

 

[Cdjones187]

"To continue, please type the characters below:
[STANDARD CAPTCHA]

About this page:
Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network. This page checks to see if it's really you sending the requests, and not a robot. Why did this happen? <--(link)

Unless there is something on your phone doing A LOT of web searches on its own (not you) you have no worries. When this pops up its asking for CAPTCHA to make sure its not a bot doing the said searching. If it is a bot, the CAPTCHA will stop all searching from happening effectively lowering bandwidth from the device. This also applies to tons of other websites to help prevent spam.

 

[jrummy16]

Hello everyone,
Although I'm not trying to mislead you with a catchy header then failing subsequently to deliver a meaty scenario, I am quite concerned with a possibly benign subject that I seek to absolve.
Recently I was given a "wag of the finger" by a Google moderating service (bot I assume) akin to a policeman's written warning. It contained the IP address of my phone, and informed me of suspicious activity taking place by said address through the phone directly or a unknown third party. I immediately scanned my computers for malware and came up empty handed, followed closely by my Droid. What gives? Searches of mine range anywhere from 'Guides for GIMP' all the way to 'Jenna Jameson,' but never through the paths traveled by truly malicious users. What combination of perfectly average searches could tip the scales of such a large database of seemingly anonymous users over to one such as my self specifically?

Thanks in advance

B

I just have to say.. your style of writing is quite entertaining.

 

[guest00459]

@CdJones
This was precisely my thought, however since it had to do with my phone and Google, I thought it best to turn to others that may or may not have had experiences in the matter. I remember what a hassle Myspace made us bear in its day with CAPTCHA. Nevertheless it is always better to be on the safe side.
>
I think I have figured it out as of the last few minutes though! I searched through my web history and remembered that I did a large number of searches for album artwork. iTunes was being its usual stubborn self and I took to the task of getting all of the artwork manually....again. Anyhow, I had forgotten I'd switched to tether midway through and used my phone's internet to help me complete the task. Why switch when I had wifi you might ask? Well I'm sure you're familiar with Hughesnet. Apparently nothing is safe from snooping eyes these days.
Thank you all for your help! It's much appreciated!

Oh and @JRummy16
Thank you for the compliment! I'm glad it gives the kicks here and there!

B

 

[team mp]

I posted this in a different thread yesterday, so I apologize for any forum violation. This is a more relevant thread. I had the same issue. Here's my post:

I left my tether up this am and later I received a captcha screen when I opened the stock browser on my droid 2. It said:

"Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network. This page checks to see that it is actually you sending those requests and not a robot...

This page appears when google automatically detects requests coming from your computer network that could be in violation of the terms of service. The block will expire shortly after those requests stop."

I entered the captcha and was able to go on to the internet.

Anyone know what's going on there? Is Verizon getting wise to rooted tethering? I use tethering A LOT and would really hate having to go back to a different isp. Let me know...

...That was the post, but my question is the same: Is Verizon/google getting serious about ending rooted tethering? That would really suck. Let me know. Thanks guys-

UPDATE- I have used 1.8g of data this month an my cycle ends on 1/13.

Sent from my DROID2 using DroidForum App