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Show HN: Use Their ID – Use your local UK MP’s ID for the Online Safety Act

use-their-id.com

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Re: Show HN: Use Their ID – Use your local UK MP’s ID for the Online Safety Act

#11

Post by qualeed »

Mindwipe wrote: post #9
qualeed wrote: post #3

I like the spirit but wouldn't this run afoul of one or two laws? Identity fraud or some such? I'm not in the UK, so I don't have any idea about their laws, but I'd be shocked to find this was above board. Your FAQ claims it's a parody site and claims " The ID number isn't valid and you can't use the card for anything real. " but you've just confirmed here it can indeed be used for real things (discord, reddit). Your…

The only way you'd ever get found out is if the affected MP was lying to the public and the identity documents do indeed get retained...

>The only way you'd ever get found out is if the affected MP was lying to the public and the identity documents do indeed get retained...

I'm more talking about the developer of the site rather than the users. And the developer could potentially be found out if they posted it on a popular hacking website and used a known alias and registered the domain in the UK.

But, if they're comfortable, all the more power to them. As I said, I do really like the spirit of the site.

Re: Show HN: Use Their ID – Use your local UK MP’s ID for the Online Safety Act

#13

Post by chippiewill »

qualeed wrote: post #3

I like the spirit but wouldn't this run afoul of one or two laws? Identity fraud or some such? I'm not in the UK, so I don't have any idea about their laws, but I'd be shocked to find this was above board. Your FAQ claims it's a parody site and claims " The ID number isn't valid and you can't use the card for anything real. " but you've just confirmed here it can indeed be used for real things (discord, reddit). Your…

I agree, the UK Police wouldn't typically let you get away with "it's just a joke". This would constitute a mixture of identity theft, fake ID and misuse of computers.

Re: Show HN: Use Their ID – Use your local UK MP’s ID for the Online Safety Act

#15

Post by dannyobrien »

As someone who was involved in the original guerilla digital activism that spawned the third-person URL format for independent UK government-watching websites (ie "Write to Them", "They Work for You"), I applaud your on-topic brand extension, Tim :)

Re: Show HN: Use Their ID – Use your local UK MP’s ID for the Online Safety Act

#17

Post by arrowsmith »

Mindwipe wrote: post #9
qualeed wrote: post #3

I like the spirit but wouldn't this run afoul of one or two laws? Identity fraud or some such? I'm not in the UK, so I don't have any idea about their laws, but I'd be shocked to find this was above board. Your FAQ claims it's a parody site and claims " The ID number isn't valid and you can't use the card for anything real. " but you've just confirmed here it can indeed be used for real things (discord, reddit). Your…

The only way you'd ever get found out is if the affected MP was lying to the public and the identity documents do indeed get retained...

The generated addresses aren't real. It gave a London address for my MP; I know where he lives and it isn't London.

Most MPs' home addresses are actually quite easy to find. Mine's was printed below his name on the ballot paper last election – a nice reminder of how we used to have a high-trust society. I doubt this practice will be continued for much longer.

Re: Show HN: Use Their ID – Use your local UK MP’s ID for the Online Safety Act

#18

Post by arrowsmith »

timje1 wrote: post #10
Muromec wrote: post #4

>It's a small, silly protest at the stupidity of the Online Safety Act that just came into force. The IDs actually work (for Reddit, Discord etc.) which highlights how terrible this implementation is. Could you give a short TL;DR of how ids are constructed so we can all laugh here in comments?

it's literally just the MPs name. It's a fake DoB (because their DoB's aren't public knowledge anymore) all the numbers and such are nonsense, the images wouldn't fool a human for one second. The AI tools don't let you generate an ID for any real human being (because that sounds like all sorts of fraud) so you can't upload a picture of the MP or anything like that - so I just let the model fill in whatever face it th…

> because their DoB's aren't public knowledge anymore

Most are on Wikipedia, no?

Re: Show HN: Use Their ID – Use your local UK MP’s ID for the Online Safety Act

#19

Post by 1a527dd5 »

I think this is a fun project, but I'm not sure I'd leave this up for much longer.

MPs can be litigious. Especially if this is seen to be enabling things like ID fraud.

Also, there are only 650 constituencies. I would pre-populate the list so when entering a new postcode, it doesn't stall waiting for AI.

Re: Show HN: Use Their ID – Use your local UK MP’s ID for the Online Safety Act

#20

Post by crinkly »

This is great. Weaponising the stupidity of the idea, compromising it entirely until it's so obviously ineffectual it's unenforceable, then going after the politicians who pushed it for the waste of money and effort.

Create a scandal. Bad PR is the only way out now.

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