{
  "id": 13560049,
  "title": "Six ways an auto clicker gives itself away, using nothing but timestamps",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/10/six-ways-an-auto-clicker-gives-itself-away-using-nothing-but",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-10T22:26:20.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/alexdev2/six-ways-an-auto-clicker-gives-itself-away-using-nothing-but-timestamps-5gl7"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Six indicators can reveal if an auto clicker is being used, based solely on timestamps. First, a consistent metronome-like pattern emerges when a clicker fires at regular intervals, with a small variation around the mean gap. Second, if a single gap value accounts for more than 45% of the total clicks, or a combination of two values covers over 75%, it suggests a timed clicker, possibly alternating between two intervals to evade detection. Third, the presence of flat-topped randomness is a red flag, as it displays a uniform distribution with a skew of around -1.2 and an excess kurtosis of approximately -1.2, while human-like clicks exhibit a right-skewed pattern with a skew value not falling below -0.5. Fourth, a human-like clicker experiences a dip in speed towards the end of a burst, while an auto clicker maintains a consistent pace. Lastly, over a duration of 10 seconds or more and at a speed exceeding 11 clicks per second, comparing the first and last quarter of hits reveals a rejection if the difference is less than 3% and the coefficient of variation remains low.",
  "summary": "I run a small click speed test, CPSBench . Once a site has a leaderboard, the first entries that look too good arrive almost before the real ones do. I can't see anyone's hand. The browser gives me a list of numbers: when each click landed, relative to the first one. Everything below is about squeezing a verdict out of that list. What the server actually receives { \"tool\" : \"cps\" , \"mode\" : \"10\"…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}