I'm sympathetic to this but this page is preaching to the choir. You didn't sell me in the first paragraph.
Never Give Them Your Face
201–210 of 468 posts
Re: Never Give Them Your Face
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are correct that your data isn't particularly impactful for these platforms - but you're also overestimating the value that many of these services have. A fair few of them have competitors with better features and privacy offerings so the only reason you need them is purely for the network effect of everyone else using them.
Just because the network effect is why you need them doesn’t make that need go away.
I don't disagree. I still use facebook once a year for contact with relatives but if the only thing keeping you is the network effect then hopefully people will migrate off - maybe you can help them do so!
Re: Never Give Them Your Face
#203Can't we even write a short text like this without LLMs anymore, not even when it's really important, when it's about humans against the inhumane ?
Exactly. I stopped reading part way through. The first thought was ... this seems like quite a lot of words to say not an awful lot of contents. And then the sentences started jumping out.
> A verification regime does not need your approval — it needs your participation
Ugh
Re: Never Give Them Your Face
#204Im sure a lot of people know about tor on this site...but let me remind everyone. Tor is not for criminals. It's for you and me. And happens to be good enough that criminals use it too. This is the two sided nature of technology. Tor is a networks of peers across the globe volunteering their network bandwidth to support people under oppression by their government. The amount of privacy that can be gained from tor is…
I think you overestimates the protection Tor provides. We have seen multiple cases of people getting caught on there, and CIA probably owns half the exit nodes anyways.
Re: Never Give Them Your Face
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's all caused by a Meta lobbying initiative across multiple countries as documented in https://tboteproject.com/ (sadly, the website is down right now), but you can find references e.g. https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/03/the-tbote-project/
Trying to put this all on Meta with a look at their 2025 lobbying spend is missing the point. The “think of the children” panic about the internet pre-dates this by years. Remember the debate around the TikTok ban? The states instituting laws about porn age checks pre-dates all of this too. I think trying to blame Meta is convenient because it’s easy to think there is just one villain coordinating everything, but the…
While the panic is indeed nothing new, Meta could have chosen a path of solidarity across the tech industry, lobbying for the ways age/identity verification makes people of all ages less safe, especially in the context of phishing and data harvesting.
Instead, its strategy has become to advocate for increasing the net levels of tracking and regulatory burden, so long as it is positioned to burden other parts of the technology stack (namely, app stores and operating systems) rather than their social networks.
From the link from a sibling commenter: https://web.archive.org/web/20260429210901/https://tboteproj...
> Meta spent a record $26.3 million on federal lobbying in 2025, deployed 86+ lobbyists across 45 states, and covertly funded a group called the Digital Childhood Alliance (DCA) to advocate for the App Store Accountability Act (ASAA).
The irony that their namesake Metaverse was meant to be, itself, an operating system and app distribution platform is palpable. When ambitions shift to regulatory capture, a shark has arguably been jumped.
Re: Never Give Them Your Face
#206Re: Never Give Them Your Face
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
> ...jwz.org... Holy fuck, man, visiting that with a HN referer serves up a rather NSFW rude image, and evidently sets a cookie to make sure it happens next time too. replacement link: https://web.archive.org/web/20260401175031/https://www.jwz.o...
Not that NSFW, could do with a trim though ...
Make it your desktop, put it on a t-shirt and wear it to work. See how long until you're ask to remove it
Re: Never Give Them Your Face
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
What does getting the COVID vaccine have to do with surveillance or grocery shopping? Where I live I simply queued up at the local vaccination centre, got vaccinated, and left. I probably had to show some id or something I guess but no more than accessing any other government services
>What does getting the COVID vaccine have to do with surveillance Google and Apple built contact tracing directly into iOS and Android during Covid. And it's still there. And all they'd need to do to make it opt-out or required is to flash an update with some small print in an EULA. It is WAY more invasive and you probably already gave your phone your face with features like face unlock too. But hey, we can stop this…
You're describing contact tracing, that is not vaccination. If people were less afraid of vaccinations, invasive practices like contact tracing would be less necessary.
Arguing against that sort of contact tracing may have merits (Not necessarily saying I agree but it's a discussion worth having). Arguing against vaccination is dangerous and ends up with people dead.
Re: Never Give Them Your Face
#209This is a little bit of a tangent compared to the post, but can someone explain to me why it's NOW that we have multiple countries (USA, Canada, UK, Australia, and probably others that I am not aware of) all looking at age verification for a technology (the internet and all the things it lets you access) has existed for over 2 decades, and has been mature for at least 10 years? You could buy illicit drugs and watch p…
It is particularly bizarre given the increasingly frightening array of designer drugs available at gas stations and convenience stores. You probably have seen them if you live in the US, and had little idea about them.
I'm not a fan of age verification(++) discussed here, but it's also extremely obvious that social media is a more significant danger to our society (children and non-) than gas station drugs.
Re: Never Give Them Your Face
#210Can't we even write a short text like this without LLMs anymore, not even when it's really important, when it's about humans against the inhumane ?
I think it is great that people point out LLM generated articles here on HN. Sadly, it feels like I am slowly loosing my skill to identify LLM speak. Maybe I am getting worn out of all LLM content... So, please, list the indicators and telltale signs from the specific article or blog post (like others have done here already). At least I would appreciate it a lot.
Straight quotes were my first clue, followed by “it’s not this it’s that” and subheads.