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

EU Age Control: The trojan horse for digital IDs

juraj.bednar.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 222 posts

Re: EU Age Control: The trojan horse for digital IDs

#21

Post by pjc50 »

delusional wrote: post #15
mayama wrote: post #10

With the way elections changed after social media became big. Govts want to have control back, like they did before. And are increasingly curbing open internet with boogeyman CP or terrorists, new fear of mass AI CP. Ultimately we'll get 2nd hand version of great firewall and social credit system. Some "liberal democracies" already have root of such systems implemented.

I don't know if it has anything to do with changes in elections directly. My government has been talking for a while making the case that social media use makes us dumber, sadder, and more scared. I believe it's true that they also see that playing out in elections, but that's not where they want to solve a problem. Wouldn't it be strange if solving a problem didn't affect elections?

This has been noticeable since Tahrir square; I used to say that Twitter gives you a revolution whether you need it or not.

But it's becoming increasingly clear how badly compromised the whole thing is with fake opinions and enemy propaganda.

I don't like either of the options. I don't like control by the state, and I don't like control by mad billionaires. I don't like the far right cesspool of 4chan, but can't disagree with their position that they shouldn't have to care about OFCOM.

Re: EU Age Control: The trojan horse for digital IDs

#22

Post by delusional »

choo-t wrote: post #19
delusional wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by "control" here? It's my understanding that EU law afford citizens the right to correct data that is wrong about them.

The problem is not about the data being correct or not, it's about its existence in the first place. Why would you correct data about you very own surveillance ?

Is all data about you "surveillance". When your doctor produces a medical record after your visit, are they "surveilling" you? How about when the railway company stores your travels to bill you later?

I'll assume your answer is no, and I that case surely you must see the value in that medical record being correct.

Re: EU Age Control: The trojan horse for digital IDs

#23

Post by grey-area »

Digital ids are inevitable in my view, just as digital currency has become inescapable because it is more convenient and efficient, these ids will be issued and things like paper proofs of identity will fall away over time. Physical tokens like bank cards and driving licenses are neither necessary nor a good solution in a networked world.

Our focus therefore should be controlling what governments can do with them - for example disallowing blocking/removing someone’s id, just as we should disallow removing citizenship.

Re: EU Age Control: The trojan horse for digital IDs

#24

Post by choo-t »

delusional wrote: post #22
choo-t wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is not about the data being correct or not, it's about its existence in the first place. Why would you correct data about you very own surveillance ?

Is all data about you "surveillance". When your doctor produces a medical record after your visit, are they "surveilling" you? How about when the railway company stores your travels to bill you later? I'll assume your answer is no, and I that case surely you must see the value in that medical record being correct.

Are you equaling mass surveillance to a doctor keeping track of your health for diagnostic accuracy purpose ?

Concerning the railway example, they only need to store how much I owe them, not my travels. Storing travel history on their end is already surveillance.

Data keeping purpose and consents are what make something surveillance or not. Forcing every citizen to use ID to access the web is surveillance plain and simple.

Re: EU Age Control: The trojan horse for digital IDs

#25

Post by croes »

wolvoleo wrote: post #7

> In any case, it was always presented as a toolbox that countries should adapt into their apps – so judging the app by itself does not make much sense, it depends on how these techniques are implemented in each country’s verification app. There will be no single EU app, despite what the honchos of EU say. Even more reason to make the "demo" app do things correctly because it's very unlikely that all member states ac…

> A simple solution is just not providing your kids with a phone or computer.

That’s not a solution. Nowadays many schools require access to a computer.

Re: EU Age Control: The trojan horse for digital IDs

#26

Post by mentalgear »

Not a fan, but unfortunately a "digital proof of citizenship" seems to inevitable due to the en-shitification of the internet, autocratic state actor's doctrines to destabilise free societies through disinformation that matches well with social media's en-rage-ment business model, and the more recent AI slopification / AI bots running wild.

The question is whether citizens can build enough pressure for such verification systems to be state-based and truly zero-knowledge (akin to the EU's) versus having the private sector 'verify' each user to siphon data, profit off it (Thiel's Persona) and fortify surveillance-capitalism and autocratic administrations.

Re: EU Age Control: The trojan horse for digital IDs

#27

Post by schubidubiduba »

coldtea wrote: post #17
delusional wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if it has anything to do with changes in elections directly. My government has been talking for a while making the case that social media use makes us dumber, sadder, and more scared. I believe it's true that they also see that playing out in elections, but that's not where they want to solve a problem. Wouldn't it be strange if solving a problem didn't affect elections?

> My government has been talking for a while making the case that social media use makes us dumber, sadder, and more scared. I believe it's true that they also see that playing out in elections, but that's not where they want to solve a problem. The governments themselves are "dumber, sadder, and more scared". They are worried because social media puts regular people talking on equal footing to official propagandas (…

You couldn't be more wrong. There's no equal footing when propaganda buys you thousands of bots to parrot what you want on every related post. And there is no ability to "reach everyone" when intransparent algorithms decide what reaches who. Moreover, some kind of content is explicitly suppressed and censored.

Re: EU Age Control: The trojan horse for digital IDs

#28

Post by fc417fc802 »

grey-area wrote: post #23

Digital ids are inevitable in my view, just as digital currency has become inescapable because it is more convenient and efficient, these ids will be issued and things like paper proofs of identity will fall away over time. Physical tokens like bank cards and driving licenses are neither necessary nor a good solution in a networked world. Our focus therefore should be controlling what governments can do with them - f…

I think even digital IDs will tend to exist as physical tokens? Also worth noting that you can have a digitized and cryptographically signed ID on "paper" which can serve much the same purpose (security, machine readability) as an electronic one. Where electronic tokens shine (for IDs or otherwise) is attesting to the physical possession of a single copy.

Re: EU Age Control: The trojan horse for digital IDs

#30

Post by izacus »

fc417fc802 wrote: post #28
grey-area wrote: post #23

Digital ids are inevitable in my view, just as digital currency has become inescapable because it is more convenient and efficient, these ids will be issued and things like paper proofs of identity will fall away over time. Physical tokens like bank cards and driving licenses are neither necessary nor a good solution in a networked world. Our focus therefore should be controlling what governments can do with them - f…

I think even digital IDs will tend to exist as physical tokens? Also worth noting that you can have a digitized and cryptographically signed ID on "paper" which can serve much the same purpose (security, machine readability) as an electronic one. Where electronic tokens shine (for IDs or otherwise) is attesting to the physical possession of a single copy.

Many EU countries already issue a chipcard IDs which can be used to auth for government services (via NFC or a dedicated reader).

So yeah, I'd expect those to move to a phone as an alternative to the card

Post reply on HN