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Brussels launched an age checking app. Hackers took 2 minutes to break it

politico.eu

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Re: Brussels launched an age checking app. Hackers took 2 minutes to break it

#171

Post by rpdillon »

michelb wrote: post #89
Sweepi wrote: post #10

These are the sources cited by the article: [1] https://xcancel.com/Paul_Reviews/status/2044502938563825820 [2] https://xcancel.com/paul_reviews/status/2044723123287666921 [3] https://csa-scientist-open-letter.org/ageverif-Feb2026 | "The saga is turning into a PR disaster for Brussels. " imo: mostly because the Author wants it be a disaster. The App has not launched, they published the source code in order to invite…

>The App has not launched, they published the source code in order to invite external review. I read that from many reactions in discussions, but not from their own channels? (Maybe I missed that) It is ready for deployment: https://commission.europa.eu/news-and-media/news/european-ag... The message is that it is ready, 'ticks all the boxes' (the published code does not) and that is now ready for integration by other…

Yeah, I was tracking this when it was first announced and they were very adamant that there was no longer any excuse for a vendor to not integrate age checks because they had now released this.

Re: Brussels launched an age checking app. Hackers took 2 minutes to break it

#172

Post by spiderfarmer »

cm-t wrote: post #99

It is "funny" to read every single time "to protect minors online" like there are no adult around them, while technically those technologies are by design to control every single human for online access. It is not because the words are well chosen to sound unpolitical, just for "security", that it make those law/technology not political. It is political.

Speaking of well chosen words. If you have to put "funny" between quotes at the beginning of a sentence, just tell us how you really feel.

I fully understand the people who say it's all about control.

I also understand why politicians feel they have to do something. My wife works with low IQ, low income and otherwise underprivileged kids. The completely unsupervised 'iPad' generation, if you will.

There are no adults in their lives. The 'adults' in their lives are mentally children, emotionally unavailable or working too many hours to do a good job at parenting. You cannot expect them to take any responsibility.

Also, every one of my 3 children has had classmates looking up porn during class. It starts around age 7-8 nowadays and it's always the same demographic.

Re: Brussels launched an age checking app. Hackers took 2 minutes to break it

#173

Post by lamasery »

philipallstar wrote: post #134
like_any_other wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The alternative would be to just not do anything and to remove liability from Meta et al. Or just give parents easy to use parental controls. But that wouldn't grow the surveillance state.

Or just have parents look after their children.

That’s why they want parental controls that actually work and don’t require the skills of a sysadmin to get right.

Re: Brussels launched an age checking app. Hackers took 2 minutes to break it

#174

Post by [deleted] »

edarchis wrote: post #106

Please stop saying "Brussels" to mean the EU. It's a nasty trick to give the idea that it's some kind of external entity forcing your country to do something. It's not. It's an assembly. And it's insulting to people from Brussels. I don't want this any more than you do.

[deleted]

Re: Brussels launched an age checking app. Hackers took 2 minutes to break it

#175

Post by 9991 »

Mashimo wrote: post #24
mrweasel wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not reality for many of us. I don't consider my phone a secure device by any means. It has nothing on it that I'd regard as something I'd need to guard against my family. I know a fair number of especially elderly people who want to disable PIN and bio-metrics from their phone, because they view it as a pain to deal with. PINs can also be guessed or someone might look you over the shoulder and steal it that wa…

Oh man, if the kid gets hold of both of their parents phones with login, they could divorce them. I don't have kids yet, so this might change, but I would not give them login and / or unsupervised access. I don't think you can guess pins, as the phones locks after a few failed attempts.

That's not a realistic concern for most people. Children don't generally want their parents to divorce.

Re: Brussels launched an age checking app. Hackers took 2 minutes to break it

#176

Post by airza »

croemer wrote: post #162
edarchis wrote: post #106

Please stop saying "Brussels" to mean the EU. It's a nasty trick to give the idea that it's some kind of external entity forcing your country to do something. It's not. It's an assembly. And it's insulting to people from Brussels. I don't want this any more than you do.

It's a figure of speech called metonymy. I agree Brussels is not very precise, a better word would be Berlaymont to refer to the EU commission specifically as there are a lot of institutions that could be meant by Brussels (Belgian federal govt, Brussels regional govt, EU commission, EU parliament, EU council, ...)

more precisely, it is synecdoche!

Re: Brussels launched an age checking app. Hackers took 2 minutes to break it

#177

Post by afishisafish »

Sweepi wrote: post #10

These are the sources cited by the article: [1] https://xcancel.com/Paul_Reviews/status/2044502938563825820 [2] https://xcancel.com/paul_reviews/status/2044723123287666921 [3] https://csa-scientist-open-letter.org/ageverif-Feb2026 | "The saga is turning into a PR disaster for Brussels. " imo: mostly because the Author wants it be a disaster. The App has not launched, they published the source code in order to invite…

[dead]

Re: Brussels launched an age checking app. Hackers took 2 minutes to break it

#178

Post by nzeid »

finghin wrote: post #108
edarchis wrote: post #106

Please stop saying "Brussels" to mean the EU. It's a nasty trick to give the idea that it's some kind of external entity forcing your country to do something. It's not. It's an assembly. And it's insulting to people from Brussels. I don't want this any more than you do.

It’s very common throughout English. The Russian government is refered to as Moscow, US as Washington. It’s the same and doesn’t refer to residents. It’s known as synecdoche. In other words, sorry but it’s here to stay.

No, Brussels is Belgium.

And Brussels is not the capitol of the EU because the EU is not a country.

Re: Brussels launched an age checking app. Hackers took 2 minutes to break it

#179

Post by brandonmenc »

uyzstvqs wrote: post #143
crimsoneer wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a society, we broadly agree shops should check ID before selling kids alcohol. It is not that crazy to extend that online.

Showing my ID at the store doesn't register this on a government OpenID4VP server, and the store doesn't copy my ID.

They scan my ID when I buy wine at the grocery store so, who knows?

Re: Brussels launched an age checking app. Hackers took 2 minutes to break it

#180

Post by jeroenhd »

michelb wrote: post #89
Sweepi wrote: post #10

These are the sources cited by the article: [1] https://xcancel.com/Paul_Reviews/status/2044502938563825820 [2] https://xcancel.com/paul_reviews/status/2044723123287666921 [3] https://csa-scientist-open-letter.org/ageverif-Feb2026 | "The saga is turning into a PR disaster for Brussels. " imo: mostly because the Author wants it be a disaster. The App has not launched, they published the source code in order to invite…

>The App has not launched, they published the source code in order to invite external review. I read that from many reactions in discussions, but not from their own channels? (Maybe I missed that) It is ready for deployment: https://commission.europa.eu/news-and-media/news/european-ag... The message is that it is ready, 'ticks all the boxes' (the published code does not) and that is now ready for integration by other…

It's not "ready for deployment". "the technology is ready and will soon be available for citizens to use"

Member states will either fork or redevelop their own apps around the proof-of-concept app. The app on Github that was "hacked" will never be deployed directly and that was never the plan either.

So far, this whole project has been an excellent way to gauge news outlets on whether they're trying to report the news or are just trying to win clicks through FUD and outrage. Most of them don't seem to know what they're writing about when they report about flaws and problems.

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