Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year

android-developers.googleblog.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 549 posts

Re: Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year

#131

Post by inigyou »

sevenzero wrote: post #102
inigyou wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

¿What are those ways?

A small example would be to set the device into "kiosk mode" which many companies use for their employee devices too. Prevent app installs, check what pages ur kids visit with their browsers and whatnot. Just make sure to be open about it so you don't hurt your kids by violating their privacy and trust towards you. Hell we even got parents having their kids take air tags with them so the parents know where they are.

Or the device could be mandated to have a "child mode" with more specific restrictions designed for children.

Re: Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year

#132

Post by upheaval7276 »

creatacc wrote: post #122
palata wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A big concern around age verification is that some people will be locked out because they can't prove their age. Your solution here has the same flaw, I think. If the algorithm thinks I'm underage, I'm locked out.

being locked out = less profit = firing management by shareholders it will solve by consumers, don't worry

yep, just like cases now where people are locked out of their accounts for no reason with no recourse. totally solved!

Re: Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year

#133

Post by creatacc »

_davide_ wrote: post #128

Seriously ready to fully drop google emails and services, i'm using vivaldi + personal email for a while now, the migration was slow a bit painful but complete. Only the phone is still attached to play store and google, but i'm 100% ready to switch to the fully supported Chinese variant of ColorOS and flush Google into the toilet once and for all. But my next phone will 100% be a Sailfish again.

I run on proton for decade and it's not exactly gmail high tech solution, but it's secure.

I have mozilla, brave, waterfox, mullvad and a few others.

It's amazing to see how google and others big companies are marking you as bot.

Re: Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year

#134

Post by pbhjpbhj »

shevy-java wrote: post #21
soulofmischief wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't aimed at you specifically, but I think many technologists seem to innately misunderstand the slippery slope hypothesis which helps form the bedrock of American politics. Too many seem to fall into the familiar problem-solving mode, ready to provide compromises or solutions while forgetting that once the infrastructure is in place, it can easily be modified later to undo the compromises which facilitated it…

Indeed - Flock cameras showed this. They also actively undermine the US constitution. Will be interesting to see whether the remaining judges have any power to change this or whether they were also integrated into the new dictatorship model.

Surely it's not the camera per se, it iss the people who are installing them. One key driver is lack of efficient law enforcement.

Do you force people not to give up their own liberties? In a democracy?

Although better privacy laws would cut off the access of non-customers to the data of those customers devices.

Re: Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year

#135

Post by ranger_danger »

0x696C6961 wrote: post #85
K0nserv wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want the market solving this. If we are going to do age checks it should be based on public key cryptography, be open source, and handled by the government. You verify with the government (or don't since they already know your age), you get some form of cryptographic attestation, present said attestation to websites/apps. I'm not a fan of age verification in the first place, but I am extremely not a fan of ra…

This is scary though too. If the gov managed a key server like this, almost all companies would start requiring it. But this effectively gives the gov a very easy way to lock you out of everything.

EU already does this with the eIDAS system and it works quite well.

Re: Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year

#136

Post by account42 »

Vespasian wrote: post #107
0x696C6961 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is scary though too. If the gov managed a key server like this, almost all companies would start requiring it. But this effectively gives the gov a very easy way to lock you out of everything.

This is really nothing new and has always be the case It's not possible to tech yourself out of a political problem. So if there is something being done we should choose a solution that has at least some accountability to the general public (through elected representatives). The alternative is Google, Apple etc where almost anyone has exactly zero influence and the government can still block as they like.

If all alternatives are bad you should do none of them, not squabble about which one is slightly less bad.

Re: Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year

#137

Post by codingjoe »

iamflimflam1 wrote: post #16

I find myself stuck on the fence with age checks. Companies have show that they are incapable or unwilling to address the problems they cause. And market forces are not working to correct things. It’s also pretty obvious that saying “parent should take responsibility” is also not working. Just observe the world around you to know it’s a non starter. This is where regulation is supposed to come in. At the same time, c…

100%, it's not like adults are immune to misinformation, social media addiction or scams. Those platforms should be safe for all people regardless of their age, nationality, sexual orientation, gender or religion.

Re: Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year

#138

Post by account42 »

jacooper wrote: post #97
0x696C6961 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is scary though too. If the gov managed a key server like this, almost all companies would start requiring it. But this effectively gives the gov a very easy way to lock you out of everything.

This will be possible if done by third parties anyway, it will just be apple, google and maybe meta, a single phone call is enough to cut you off. At least if the government is doing it, the app doesn't get your id.

Either the app will get the id, you will be prevented from running arbitrary software on your device, or the whole thing will not work because it becomes trivial to sell your age verification tokens.

Re: Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year

#139

Post by brookst »

creatacc wrote: post #122
palata wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A big concern around age verification is that some people will be locked out because they can't prove their age. Your solution here has the same flaw, I think. If the algorithm thinks I'm underage, I'm locked out.

being locked out = less profit = firing management by shareholders it will solve by consumers, don't worry

In the aggregate sure. But do you really think profit motive means they will be precise for every individual?
Post reply on HN