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Your Computer Might Demand Your Age Soon, No Matter Where You Live (uk.pcmag.com)
submitted 2 days ago* by to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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This is unacceptable. And I’m sick of all the fucking workarounds to maintain basic privacy.

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[–] 61 points 2 days ago (30 children)

Sigh, guess it’s time to bust open a pre-code copy of ‘How to build Linux from scratch’

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  • [–] [S] 28 points 2 days ago (14 children)

    I fucking guess. I am at the point where I will take my children out of school if they are forced to do face scans or give any ID in order to participate and learn. I’m almost at the point where I would rather lose my job than comply with this

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  • [–] 15 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    take my children out of school if they are forced to do face scans or give any ID

    don't know where you live, but here in the ol' U of K, schools have been doing that sort of thing for over 20 years! I was appalled when I first heard about it, and I think it was from a friend whose kids had to give fingerprints. "Oh yes I know - big brother, but it's so convenient" was their attitude.

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  • [–] [S] 7 points 2 days ago

    It is appalling, but I could see parents from 20 years ago being less concerned than now. Of course back then they weren’t aggregating user data to today’s level, at least I don’t think.

    What bothers me too are things like Palintir. Like, I don’t want my kid in some massive police database before they even turn 12

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  • [–] -4 points 2 days ago (10 children)

    Children don't usually have ID. You only need to provide ID to prove you're an adult.

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  • [–] [S] 24 points 2 days ago* (3 children)

    I’m 100% not convinced that it will stay this way. This, to me, is a push towards ID verification. Age verification is a first step. To me, it feels more like a step towards building an infrastructure to track any user

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  • [–] 4 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    a step towards building an infrastructure to track any user

    I'm inclined to believe that infrastructure already exists (both state intelligence services and corpos like Meta), this is about being able to use it in the legal system and getting people to self censor.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 days ago

    For normal activities this absolutely exists, and when you are just being you on the internet, a nation state could easily track you down.

    However, it's exploitable and avoidable. Probably not entirely, but if you want to you can make their life difficult.

    They won't stop until your digital identification cryptographically signs every packet you send, I guarantee it.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 days ago (5 children)

    My country provides ID from birth.

    Biometrics are only collected around 5 years old, and only for the indicators, while signature only is requested around 7, after pre-school or first year of literacy.

    Photo is taken with days or weeks. The state, all of us, recognize everyone as a citizens and their rights from birth.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 day ago (4 children)

    I didn't say anything about having ID. I said you only need to submit ID to get access to adult content.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    Not really.

    I got surprised a few months back with a shopping site requesting age verification. Of all things.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    Won't help much when the internet requires devices be verified by Google Play or equivalent to log into any accounts or do anything.

    I guess maybe you can paint pictures and self-host things on your DIY OS, but the stuff web like banking etc that integrates you into society won't be accessible.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    bust open a pre-code copy of ‘How to build Linux from scratch’

    Short term, that'll help. Long term, it won't.

    Sure, you can do that. Then what? If every single site requires a secure attestation from an identity service before you can use it, you re boned. Want to shop? Bank? Social media? Check the gd weather? If the site won't serve you w/o a strong identity proof, then linux won't save you. Linux will be an island.

    IDK if it'll get that far. But it isn't that far fetched. Already today, I estimate 50% of site I try to use won't answer me if I totally block fingerprints and use a VPN. I'm talking mundane shit, recipes, car repair info, w/e. If I remove my privacy protections, they work fine. Nothing stops that from happening to any OS that deosn't prove a trusted ID attestation.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (1 child)

    On those sites, have you tried VPN + ad blocking?

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago

    That's more or less what I do most of the time. The more roadblocks you put up for the tracking and data broker companies, the more the site is likely to block you.

    There are lists of VPN endpoints you can just whack into an apache or nginx config. That's becoming more and more common for sites, over time.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 days ago

    Linux so far is mostly exempt and it's the big corporations like Microsoft, Apple, and Google who actually want it so they can sell that info and use it for ads. For Linux, just consider it one more criteria for choosing your distribution if it comes around. If the distro adds it as a requirement for install, then move to another. Fortunately there are lots of good ones these days.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 days ago (7 children)

    i'm going to switch to devuan since systemd already pre-complied wo anyone commanding them to.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 child)

    Devuan, AntiX, and MX Linux all seem worth a look for people wanting to avoid systemd. More are listed here:

    https://itsfoss.com/systemd-free-distros/

    https://systemdfree.com/#distros

    (FWIW, I think systemd's age data collection is optional, at least for now. It's not clear which Linux distros will implement/adopt it by default.)

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  • [–] 2 points 2 days ago

    no mention of guix on a systemd less distro list is crazy. not that i use guix, and im fine with systemd as a nixos user, but it feels like guix is the anti nixos. the richard stallman version of nixos with all the pros and cons that come with that

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  • [–] 8 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    This is such a weird stance given the actual change that was made. No actual age verification, no external communication of any kind. All that got added is a number field. The ability to store a number labeled "age" for user accounts. That's it.

    There already is a field for first name and last name. You can leave them blank as well (most probably do). If any software requires a number to be there, just enter 99 or whatever. Unless this gets severely worse this is such a nothing-burger.

    I'm not happy about any step into that direction either, but pick your battles (or hill I guess). This certainly is a weird one.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    "As a frog, you should wait until the water is already boiling before you hop"

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago*

    i came here to say this but with WAAAY MORE words -- well done!

    i think the fact that this community is so averse to admitting that this is a trend and the second such example of the foss community pre-complying w the epstein class' expectations speaks to an political ideology to refuses to accept that fascism is here.

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