What they're actually looking for is you to click the boxes slowly like an elderly person. Which is frustrating when you have to get through 1000 captchas.

> when you have to get through 1000 captchas

Seriously, thanks for not using Google Chrome.

1000? Recently they started to repeat for me after just about 15, and after few rounds of repeats it didn't get me in and I gave up.

Anecdotally, with reCAPTCHA I click pretty fast and generally don’t have a problem.

Can anyone working in the industry verify that this isn't just rumor?

Try to automate anything that requires a CAPTCHA. do the CAPTCHAs manually. You will quickly become fast at clicking boxes. You will notice you always fail the CAPTCHA. Click them more slowly, and you stop failing the as much.

That might be what recaptcha claims, but in reality it's just based on your IP reputation, any google cookies (ie. if you're signed into google), and client fingerprinting.