Is anyone else getting this message often today (Friday October 8th) when trying to accept a HIT?

[user9430961]

“You or someone at this location has already taken this study or a study in this study group. Do not accept this HIT. (Code ) If you previously started this study but did not submit it, it might be found in HITs Assigned to You”

I live alone and my WiFi is secured, so I’m the only one with my IP address that works HITS. Yet all day today about 75% of every HIT I try to accept has that this message (listed above). Looking at all of the HITS in question, I have not worked any of them this week at least. I have been a Turker for about 3 years and normally I only work 10 - 20 HITs per day, so I’m rather puzzled by this message, unless something has changed where requesters have a much better way of keeping track of Mturkers that have worked their HITS weeks, months, or years ago. Up until today, I did not have this problem or see this message on any HIT I accepted all week long. This seems to have started just today (Ocotber 8th).

I have cleared my cache and rebooted my computer, and still get that message on 75% of the HITs I accept.

I removed Google Chrome, then reinstalled it, and I still get that message on 75% of the HITs I accept.

GRRRR! This has never happened to me before.

 

[user9430961]

I was able to find a solution to my problem. Here goes . . .

THE SOLUTION: I ended up getting my computer Guru to come in to help me. As it turns out, something went wacky with my VPN. Had I not have Amazon Prime movies, I do not think I would have known there was a VPN problem. So my problem stretched beyond that HIT message. I had a VPN problem message on my TV screen (when trying to select and watch an Amazon Prime movie). So once the VPN issue was fixed, I’m now back in business working HITS without any problem. It feels great to be a Turker again!


Now with that being said, I want people to know that if they have this problem at some future date (a day from now, a month from now, a year from now), please make sure that your VPN is working correctly or has not changed in some way.

I know that it is a "no no" to use a VPN being a Turker, yet I figure since I live in the United States and I am doing honest work, Amazon does not need to track me and know all of my personal business like they want to. I should have some level of privacy being a Turker.

Plus, since my Amazon Prime account is the same account that my Mturk account is attached to, Amazon already has my home address, has my telephone number, has at least one of my credit card number’s (listed in my Amazon account), has my bank account number and my bank’s routing number (so I can receive payment), so Amazon knows I'm a real person and they know exactly where I live. Which I'm pretty sure they relay that information to HIT requesters (at some point) to validate that a Mturker is real, has a real Amazon account, has a real residential address, based on the Turker being an "existing" Amazon customer . . . so now this is where I’m drawing the line. As far as I am concerned, Amazon can boot me from their platform or a requester can reject my HIT if they don’t like me using a VPN. At the end of the day, it’s not worth me giving up so much privacy to make a few cents per HIT. If I were making a six figure income, then that is a different story. “Happy Turking!”.