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I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

neilzone.co.uk

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Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#371

Post by renjimen »

uyzstvqs wrote: post #195

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: The standard should be that devices ask whether the user is a minor during setup, and make that available as an is_minor boolean to all apps and websites. Children's devices are almost always set up by parents, and the setting can be protected by a parental PIN code. This method is effective while being completely private and local. Though I can't take credit for the idea.…

It's only effective if "Children's devices are almost always set up by parents", which is a big assumption. My parents were about as tech savvy as you could reasonably expect but I still got away with buying R-rated video games and such. Kids are persistent and the dangers aren't always obvious.

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#372

Post by belorn »

xXSLAYERXx wrote: post #183
cortesoft wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in my mid forties, been working as a professional software developer for over 20 years. I click “accept the cookies” almost every time. I just personally don’t feel it’s worth the effort and cost to try to avoid it. What “dark pattern cookie trick” are you worried about? I just can’t come up with a scenario where it will actually harm me in any way. All the examples I have heard are either completely implausible…

Feel similarly. And to be honest, even when I do select decline all, I have little confidence that the function does what it says it does.

This is how we should view all information we get from a company. If the product say organic, claim to be pure ingredients, recycled material, made in "COUNTRY", or any other claim, it is only just that. It is simply a claim that you as the customer has no way to verify.

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#373

Post by 1970-01-01 »

londons_explore wrote: post #363
1970-01-01 wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1000% this. Fake info for everything that isn't directly tied to money or government. HN doesn't have my info. Apple doesn't have it. Google doesn't have it. Amazon doesn't have it. Microsoft doesn't have it. They don't care who I really am, and that hasn't, ever never, been a problem for using their stuff. They want your real ID. They do not need it. At all.

Remember that just typing 'John Smith DOB 1/1/1900' into a random webform and clicking submit to get in is technically wire fraud. Sure, it usually won't be prosecuted... Until you upset the wrong person and they're looking for a crime you did...

So is breaching all your PII into the universe. Choose your battles or they will be chosen for you. Aside, I'm technically 126 years old in some DBs. Nobody cares.

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#374

Post by bmacho »

bpt3 wrote: post #78
bmacho wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just cookies, it's explicit consent to track you, and sell your browsing history to ~1500 spy companies around the world. To the sibling comments: don't "accept the cookies" and then delete them. - - - I'm super angry at what the web has become, especially at the OS browser community. There is 0 browser (that I know of) that can access the web safely and conveniently. Atm I use Firefox with uBlock which bloc…

What would a safe extension model look like to you? At some point, you have to implicitly trust someone unless you audit every line of code (or write it yourself) and build everything from source that you run.

> What would a safe extension model look like to you?

> At some point, you have to implicitly trust someone

A model so I trust my OS and my browser, and I don't have to trust anyone else, that is, they can't harm me.

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#376

Post by shevy-java »

They hate us for our freedom.

I don't buy for a second that any of this has to do with "age verification".

This is 100% an attempt to increase surveillance of the population. It is not an isolated step but part of a cohesive unit - YOU are the data. And private entities want the data. That includes the state; many states are de-facto led like a corporation (not all states, by the way, but many - most definitely the USA right now).

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#377

Post by Joel_Mckay »

These are the times, even renewing a nmfta scac code in the US may require government ID, social security number, and biometric profile check. Save yourself $5 and use a smart-phone, as a webcam will not work... There are no refunds after 3 failures to scan ID.

In general, a social security number is extremely sensitive, and should never be shared outside your home country tax system.

Verification is indeed a perverse invasion of privacy, and a liability to those with financial holdings. I guess the credit-lock service is now a must to deal with the circus that is modern logistics. =3

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#378

Post by shevy-java »

bArray wrote: post #6

I was sitting in a room the other day with a young adult, we were searching for additional algorithm learning materials. They searched in Google, and accept the cookies. They clicked on a website, and accepted those cookies too. They then started entering their email address to access another service. I was completely taken aback. I'm the sort of person that either rejects the cookies, or will use another site entire…

>Siting there I realized, we were not the real target.

That is wrong. You definitely ARE the target too - perhaps not the primary one but you are part of the cohesive whole. Why would you think that Facebook sniffs for offline data about which doctors people visit? These are not accidents.

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#379

Post by sophacles »

cm2012 wrote: post #364
sophacles wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about food products that can be used to excess? What about cars or AI or vacations? All these products can be harmful when misused.

Those all pass the utilitarian calculation for me, goods greater than harm.

What utility does a box of cookies have? A bar of chocolate? A can of soda? Those things are about pleasure and have serious harmful consequences if overused - just like tobacco, alcohol and drugs.

What about video games? They only have utility in pleasure and the sedentary lifestyle associated with over-playing them is extremely harmful.

Sounds to me like you have some random things you decided you don't like and want to ban ads for them, not that you've done any thinking about utility (other than as a bad attempt at rationalizing your anti-some things campaign).

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#380

Post by shevy-java »

cortesoft wrote: post #310
1shooner wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First of all, if you don't practice any tracking limitation, you're almost certainly giving additional parties (directly or otherwise) access to your personal information. This is marketing data brokerage, this is the whole ballgame. To your point about the actual harm, I've come to see it as a kind of ecological problem. Wasting energy and sending more trash to a landfill doesn't harm me individually, at least not i…

Sadly, this still doesn't do anything to show me that I should opt out. I, as an individual, am not going to have any effect on a business if I opt out or not. No business decision is going to be made because I opt out. You might argue that it will matter if enough of us do it. Sure, that is true... but again, it won't matter if I do it or not. If N number of people opting out is enough to ruin the business model, th…

> I do use an ad blocker, and never click on ads. I feel like that action has a bigger return on investment than no clicking the cookie banner.

Right, but this is not solely about cookies or blocking ads. You also leave behind data which helps create a profile. AI is mass-creating profiles of everyone. Not everyone will have the same pattern, but information space is finite and they get more and more data about you over time. You may think this is not relevant for your use cases, but can you make this as prediction in the future?

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