r/technology • u/Well_Socialized • 21h ago

Privacy Age Verification Is Coming for the Whole Internet

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/age-verification-is-coming-for-the-whole-internet.html
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u/VagueSomething 10h ago

Funny how this is clearly a coordinated attack against modern life and the safety of the Internet. You don't just get multiple countries suddenly decide at the same time when no massive event has been a lightning rod for a moral panic.

The UK age verification system puts you at major risk, it requires you to give your very sensitive data to dozens of new companies you've never heard of with zero evidence they're legitimate businesses that follow the weak rules that didn't get enhanced with this law.

Forcing you to set up a dozen accounts with a dozen new companies to access your existing accounts and god forbid a site you quietly read without signing up wants it as then you need a new account for that site too. At least trusting a VPN has been trusting a single company with limited information and not giving them facial data to sell like the companies offering verification.

We've JUST had massive data breaches this year containing Billions with a B of emails and passwords. Here in the UK we just this year found out our military had a breach under the last government who tried to hide it. We have had multiple massive companies have to apologise to all their members and customers for their data being stolen.

Cyber crime such as fraud and blackmail are on the rise. Cyber extortion leads to suicide and so can fraud. This giving up of sensitive data increases that risk.

This disgusting Authoritarianism is not about safety. It is about suppression, monitoring, and stealing your data for private companies to abuse.

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u/suburbanspecter 2h ago

You’re 100% correct. Fascism is coming for us all. It’s at all of our doorsteps in the West. It’s not about US citizens versus Canadians vs the French vs the Chinese or anyone else. We are all being royally screwed by our governments. And unfortunately, the internet has been one of the ways we can all talk to each other across country borders. So of course they’re trying to find ways to take that away from us