European "age verification" "app" forcing everyone to use Android or iOS • Hacker News Board

Re: European "age verification" "app" forcing everyone to use Android or iOS

#371

Post by a2128 » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 7:24 AM UTC

Deukhoofd wrote: post #271

Erikun wrote: post #36

Im confused, the github discussion says that the README says App and device verification based on Google Play Integrity API and Apple App Attestation But I can't find that anywhere. Am I missing something?

This entire issue is a disaster of a Github issue. It looks like its on the entirely wrong repository. I did eventually find the text in another repository; the one for the Android reference implementation: https://github.com/eu-digital-identity-wallet/av-app-android... It was removed from there to clarify the entire "Hey, this application is not done yet" It being in the reference implementation instead of the spec…

In my opinion the whole "it's just a reference and national govs can decide" is a nonsense excuse to diffuse blame in a circle. The only outcome is that national governments will closely follow the reference and reuse the decision, the citizens of each country then have to manually complain to their own government individually, at which point they might get ignored because, well the reference implementation has it or talks about it, so they're just following the recommended security requirements, and who are you anyway to be demanding our system get less secure are you some kind of cybercriminal?

Play Integrity is still recommended to be evaluated in the documentation, with no mentions of its consequences. https://github.com/eu-digital-identity-wallet/av-app-android...

Re: European "age verification" "app" forcing everyone to use Android or iOS

#372

Post by watwut » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 7:31 AM UTC

rcbdev wrote: post #344

watwut wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have it other way round. USA had burner anonymous cards when European countries did not.

Yes. Had. In Europe it was the norm far longer than in the U.S.A.

Where exactly in Europe? Countries I interacted with did not had anonymous burner phones. You could buy prepaid card, but you had to show your id and give out your name. You had contract like any other (contract for that number).

Prepaid card was just a payment thing, not anonymity thing. I know, because I functioned on prepaid cards for anonymity unrelated reasons.

Re: European "age verification" "app" forcing everyone to use Android or iOS

#373

Post by account42 » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 7:36 AM UTC

mghackerlady wrote: post #356

tokai wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That wont help anything. Then you are just force to use Android, iOS, or Sailfish. It need to be a platform agnostic thing, else you're just hitching the fulcrum of civil society on private company.

I don't disagree, but the eu needs their own mobile OS alternative in general so if they absolutely need to rely on a private company, it isn't an american one

This doesn't follow. Why is public infrastructure no longer a possibility as soon as computers get involved? We aren't talking about cutting edge innovation here anymore, mobile phones are boring standard devices.

Re: European "age verification" "app" forcing everyone to use Android or iOS

#374

Post by account42 » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 7:40 AM UTC

api wrote: post #308

blop wrote: post #25

This is the elephant in the room regarding the big "digital sovereignty" talks in the EU. For the moment in the EU institutions the focus is mostly at the post-acceptance stage that everything must eventually migrate off US clouds. There is still some denial and hope that things will go back to "before" because it's going to be extremely costly to migrate, but at least high level EU civil servants start to see the st…

Mobile is the UI/UX equivalent of… I don’t even know… a moon landing? A wonder of the world? I’m not saying it can’t be duplicated. I’m saying if you want to build a mobile platform you need to approach it with appropriate respect for the incredible difficulty of making something that usable.

UI/UX is not the problem at all, app compatibility/availability is.

Re: European "age verification" "app" forcing everyone to use Android or iOS

#375

Post by spwa4 » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 7:53 AM UTC

inigyou wrote: post #163

spwa4 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean giving China control over it? (because you still need the hardware made, and it's not like the EU commission is even prepared to fix BSPs for that hardware) The EU has endlessly sold critical infrastructure to US, India and China while actively sabotaging efforts to rebuild it and now want it back - for free. This is criticized as having a low chance of success, as well as being a pretty unreasonable demand.

TIL Google is China

You misunderstand, my point is that Non-Google Android is Chinese. Which it obviously is.

Re: European "age verification" "app" forcing everyone to use Android or iOS

#376

Post by account42 » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 7:57 AM UTC

moi2388 wrote: post #358

inigyou wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing could possibly go wrong with eugenics

It can, but we’re quite good at it with all animals and plants..

If you mean that we can breed subservient cripples then sure.

Re: European "age verification" "app" forcing everyone to use Android or iOS

#377

Post by account42 » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 7:59 AM UTC

inigyou wrote: post #277

bennettnate5 wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is. It's far from good, but it's much better than eugenics.

Note that we do have a system of eugenics, which we call money.

How so? Birth rate isn't positively correlated with wealth.

Re: European "age verification" "app" forcing everyone to use Android or iOS

#378

Post by impure-aqua » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 8:10 AM UTC

tikkabhuna wrote: post #43

knorker wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny you use Netherlands as a good example, considering that famously, their existing unusually thorough registry was super helpful for the Nazis rounding up jews later. I don't think it's Godwin's Law when you are so spot on, exactly describing the worst case.

Why would an age verification app need to know your ethnicity/religion? Governments likely already know your name, age, place of birth, so having an app with a standard API for verifying users isn't giving the government additional data.

It may not record your ethnicity or religion, but ID documents certainly record your sex, and plenty of authoritarians seem interested in identifying individuals for whom this database column has been updated.

Re: European "age verification" "app" forcing everyone to use Android or iOS

#379

Post by literalAardvark » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 8:10 AM UTC

roundabout-host wrote: post #81

jchw wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This app requires Google Play. AOSP alone won't cut it.

In fact, it requires attestation: even if you install Google Play on some Android in an emulator/container/VM, on an alternative Android distro or in a rooted device, the app will not accept it.

Wth. Does it at least have the decency to use aosp attestation? Or are they just happy to give the keys to the kingdom to Google and require Play Protect?

Re: European "age verification" "app" forcing everyone to use Android or iOS

#380

Post by literalAardvark » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 8:13 AM UTC

api wrote: post #308

blop wrote: post #25

This is the elephant in the room regarding the big "digital sovereignty" talks in the EU. For the moment in the EU institutions the focus is mostly at the post-acceptance stage that everything must eventually migrate off US clouds. There is still some denial and hope that things will go back to "before" because it's going to be extremely costly to migrate, but at least high level EU civil servants start to see the st…

Mobile is the UI/UX equivalent of… I don’t even know… a moon landing? A wonder of the world? I’m not saying it can’t be duplicated. I’m saying if you want to build a mobile platform you need to approach it with appropriate respect for the incredible difficulty of making something that usable.

Nah that's complete bull. It's been a solved problem since Android 2.0.

The only thing they're improving on mobile these days are addictiveness and data collection.