Anyone who is about to complete, or already has completed, an age-verification or identity-verification process online should read this short article.

The Doctor

@annehargreaves @Em0nM4stodon Absolutely zero.

Assume that's the purpose and act accordingly.

SamuelJohnson

@Em0nM4stodon @thelocalstack Thanks for this. It's as depressing as it unsurprising. A useful public service.

Katharta

@Em0nM4stodon @thelocalstack Viewed under the light that ICE makes extensive use of facial recognition apps, this is deeply troubling.

Taran Rampersad

@Em0nM4stodon @thelocalstack Posted to LinkedIn.

Because.

Em :official_verified:

@knowprose @thelocalstack

FurryBeta

@Em0nM4stodon @thelocalstack This is unfortunately true for just about anything one signs up for, though the invasiveness may not be as severe as your example. Sign up for just about any account, and if you dig into to the ToS, PP, and other docs, you’ll see data sharing. Often enough, there are multiple ToD and PP involved, because one company handles sign on, another handles back end, another something else. It’s utterly ridiculous

Alex S.

@Em0nM4stodon @thelocalstack @doekman @FurryBeta @knowprose @annehargreaves

In Europe there is an alternative that verifies your ID better *and* is data minimizing.

Most European ID-Cards have a cryptographic chip that enables verification of identity via a NFC-coupled Smartphone-App.

What is special: You can select in the App which info to give away. Only age, only lastname, only address, etc.

Identity provider is the state and in Germany the App is open source, called #AusweisApp.

Taran Rampersad

@alex_mastodon @Em0nM4stodon @thelocalstack @doekman @FurryBeta @annehargreaves What is probably the most interesting to me is the sudden interest in 'age verification' or any other verification.

These websites and services survived all these years without them. Then 'bots' showed up, and they didn't bother that much with it at all - X is a great example, as is anything Meta, as is LinkedIn.

What they had a problem with was when #ai showed up and collapsed the field.

GF493D

@knowprose @alex_mastodon @Em0nM4stodon @thelocalstack @doekman @FurryBeta @annehargreaves it's not sudden. It's just an excuse. Creeping closer and close 2ward yet more ID. Until it's irremovable.

Taran Rampersad

@GF493D @alex_mastodon @Em0nM4stodon @thelocalstack @doekman @FurryBeta @annehargreaves I won't disagree.

I will note that authoritarianism is on the rise, which fits your argument, and the correlation that I pointed out may not be causation.

Maybe AI has little to do with it. But looking through all the companies involved with the verification in the original post, AI is at least involved.

I don't know. What I do know is that the effect sucks.