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Stop Treating Phone Numbers As A Digital ID (notthesolution.substack.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 125 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Oh everyone is fed up but we just elected a guy and government who is sure to make it all way way way worse.

He just helped put the nail in the coffin of the lie that crypto is for anything but scams, don't worry, it's gonna get real bad before it gets any better.

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  • [–] 30 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    In South Africa, where I live, everyone is assigned an ID Number at Birth. You need an ID number, thumbprint scan AND proof of address to get issued a SIM card number due to a law introduced called RICA. It was meant to help fight crime. Worried that the government could listen in to calls or read their SMSs, the criminals just switched to WhatsApp, which also happened to become cheaper than SMSs and gained popularity in this time.

    The cops never seemed to crack WhatsApp. The only drug busts that happen are when an open secret becomes laughably too open and when they harass every person arriving from South America at O.R. Tambo international airport just to catch the decoy mules carrying 12g of cocaine (total). Every dealer I ever organised with was over WhatsApp.

    So now, woopsi, RICA stopped nothing and just became a liability. That treasure trove of fragile data made its way to scammers and spammers. A total net negative.

    I'd encourage everyone else in other countries to apply major pushback to any government proposals in this direction.

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  • [+] 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 child)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    [citation needed]

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Did we? My government leader hasn't changed nor have we had an election lately

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    There's a subset of Americans who are rather like ostriches: heads so deeply buried in the sand that they forget anything exists outside their immediate surroundings. Reminding them that the rest of the world is out there rarely has any positive results, however.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    "Bitcoin, it just seems like a scam," Mr Trump said. "I don't like it because it's another currency competing against the dollar."

    — Donald Trump

    Of course, Trump Coin made just for him is fine. And any security who bribes him. Oh wait now none of them are securities; Gary Gensler was our last line of defense.

    [Edit: got it backwards]

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