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Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults

cnbc.com

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Re: Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults

#41

Post by tmaly »

john_strinlai wrote: post #6

> An FTC spokesperson told CNBC that companies must limit how collected information is used. [...] The agency pointed to existing rules requiring firms to retain personal information only as long as reasonably necessary and to safeguard its confidentiality and integrity. the very same rules that have allowed literally every single piece of my data to be leaked several separate times, and now i have free credit monito…

I have gotten several notices of medical data being leaked over the last two years. I thought HIPPA law had very harsh fines for this, but I guess they just look the other way.

Re: Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults

#42

Post by Jeremy1026 »

hunter2_ wrote: post #34
PaulKeeble wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of the accounts being blocked from certain access are themselves 18! You would think Reddit would consider that, but nope it doesn't.

Probably because the transfer of accounts (typically for reasons of better spamming, but in this case for adult access) is possible. However, that makes me wonder what mechanism might "unverify" an account holder's age upon transfer. I suppose it's simply a need to re-verify (take a new photo) upon every login, but then folks could transfer the session cookie to avoid needing the new owner to perform a login (unless…

Since you don't have to verify every time you use the account, transfer of verified accounts will still be a "problem" though. It's just a CYA to be able to say "we verified this account owner."

Re: Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults

#43

Post by gibspaulding »

m4ck_ wrote: post #24
ArchieScrivener wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much money did the CFPB actually give back to wronged consumers?

Pre-trump's attempts to eliminate the department, almost $20 billion. https://www.consumerfinance.gov/enforcement/enforcement-by-t...

And one would hope that the purpose of the CFPB would be to dissuade lenders from wronging consumers in the first place, meaning the net benefit to consumers was likely much higher.

Re: Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults

#45

Post by rnxrx »

This is probably fantastic news for the VPN providers. Lots of people who otherwise wouldn't have bothered are now likely incorporating VPN connectivity into their daily routine. This very obviously includes kids.

I also wouldn't be surprised if there were plenty of people only dimly aware of the idea of a VPN who are now sitting up and taking note.

Re: Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults

#46

Post by RHSeeger »

Aurornis wrote: post #5

> Social media company Discord announced plans in February to roll out mandatory age verification globally, Discord’s age verification is optional and only required to disable the image content filter, join adult servers, and a couple other features. I’m not saying it’s a good decision, but I am getting tired of the repeated claim that it’s mandatory to go do age verification to use the service. This lazy reporting i…

You're downplaying it in the same way that others are overplaying it.

- There are servers that are labelled adult only because it's simpler to label _everything_ as causing cancer than it is to only label the correct things. I can't join channels for some games because they're "adult"; even though they're not

- There are servers that are getting rid of content because they don't want some automatic system to label them as adult, even though they're not. There's a game server that got rid of it's meme channel, because people could (but don't) post content that some system might see as adult.

So it is a bigger deal than you're making it out to be. It's negatively impacting people and servers that have no interest in having anything adult on them.

Re: Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults

#47

Post by DrJokepu »

Jeremy1026 wrote: post #42
hunter2_ wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because the transfer of accounts (typically for reasons of better spamming, but in this case for adult access) is possible. However, that makes me wonder what mechanism might "unverify" an account holder's age upon transfer. I suppose it's simply a need to re-verify (take a new photo) upon every login, but then folks could transfer the session cookie to avoid needing the new owner to perform a login (unless…

Since you don't have to verify every time you use the account, transfer of verified accounts will still be a "problem" though. It's just a CYA to be able to say "we verified this account owner."

But… You could transfer the account after age verification too. The only way to be sure is to ask for ID every time people use the website / application, then children will be truly finally safe from the horrors of the Internet.

Re: Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults

#48

Post by antonyh »

My default reaction to the introduction of any age-verification for any service is the closing account. Goodbye Discord, account closed out of protest.

The second option is ignoring the verification request. Goodbye online-gaming-with-strangers on Xbox. (I see this as a positive). Same goes for Ubisoft who aggressively wanted my secret papers to verify my identity.

I've yet to come across anything I want or need outside banking or government use where age verification benefits me, or is so useful/important that I would willingly hand over critical secret documents. I've not even needed to use a VPN for anything. It doesn't mean it won't happen, but when it does, option #1 or #2 is going to cover everything.

Which circles back to the main point here - if I ignore it, then effectively I get identified as a non-adult. How does this protect anybody?

(UK-based, might not be the same everywhere)

Re: Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults

#49

Post by SoftTalker »

tmaly wrote: post #41
john_strinlai wrote: post #6

> An FTC spokesperson told CNBC that companies must limit how collected information is used. [...] The agency pointed to existing rules requiring firms to retain personal information only as long as reasonably necessary and to safeguard its confidentiality and integrity. the very same rules that have allowed literally every single piece of my data to be leaked several separate times, and now i have free credit monito…

I have gotten several notices of medical data being leaked over the last two years. I thought HIPPA law had very harsh fines for this, but I guess they just look the other way.

Seems like if you just disclose and make assurances that "you take security seriously" then it's fine.

Re: Online age-verification tools for child safety are surveilling adults

#50

Post by john_strinlai »

tmaly wrote: post #41
john_strinlai wrote: post #6

> An FTC spokesperson told CNBC that companies must limit how collected information is used. [...] The agency pointed to existing rules requiring firms to retain personal information only as long as reasonably necessary and to safeguard its confidentiality and integrity. the very same rules that have allowed literally every single piece of my data to be leaked several separate times, and now i have free credit monito…

I have gotten several notices of medical data being leaked over the last two years. I thought HIPPA law had very harsh fines for this, but I guess they just look the other way.

unfortunately, even if the fine seems harsh, if it is less than the profits generated the fine is an operating expense and not a deterrent.
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