Booking form: reCAPTCHA is not GDPR compliant

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1

Booking form: reCAPTCHA is not GDPR compliant. Could you please add an option in the settings to enable or disable reCAPTCHA?

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Hello there, @Norbert_Davidt :waving_hand:

Recently, we had to make the reCAPTCHA mandatory for all widget with forms.

We had to make this decision because our widgets were receiving a large number of automated spam submissions. Emails and autoresponses were being sent to non-existent addresses, which caused the email provider to start limiting outgoing messages.

This affected email deliverability for all our customers, so the protection is now enabled by default and cannot be disabled. I am so sorry!

You can find more details about the current reCAPTCHA version used in the widgets and how your privacy policy should be updated due to these changes: Forms: reCAPTCHA Enterprise protection is now enabled.

Let me know if this explains things or if you have any questions left :slightly_smiling_face:

4

Hi @Max

From a purely legal standpoint, having an option to disable it would be very important for EU users. Balancing the need to curb spam against the risk of exposing legitimate users to legal warnings—effectively setting a trap for them—is not a good approach. I think you should reconsider whether there might be a middle ground between the two extremes.
I assume you can identify which forms are generating the spam. Couldn’t those specific forms be blocked—either temporarily or permanently—based on frequency?

Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR: The legitimate interest here is protecting the form against spam, bots, and abuse. However, the GDPR requires:

  1. a legitimate interest,
  2. the necessity of the specific measure,
  3. a positive outcome of the balancing of interests

With reCAPTCHA, point 2 is particularly problematic: if less intrusive alternatives exist—such as honeypots, time checks, or server-side limits—the data transfer to Google may not be considered necessary.
lit (f) is defensible, but it is not an automatic “free pass.”

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Hi @Sina :waving_hand:

Thank you so much for the feedback!

Please let me discuss this situation with the team once again. I’ll report back once I have any news :slightly_smiling_face: