Live data from Hacker News

I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

neilzone.co.uk

411–420 of 645 posts

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying ”I don’t have anything to hide”? All of your data starts affecting everything your data is used for. You may get worse rates for a mortgage, or not get one at all. You may be denied insurance or insurance claims. Cherry-picked details of your online activities may be used against you in a court of law, if you ever find yourself in one for any reason (think custody). These are the very mild examples fro…

Oh, I don't think I have nothing to hide. I have plenty to hide, so I hide it. I just don't think blocking cookies meaningfully protects anything that I want to hide. I feel like it is putting gloves on while you walk around naked, it isn't doing anything to protect your privacy. > You may get worse rates for a mortgage, or not get one at all. That is an interesting example, because getting a mortgage is going to req…

Browsing history (and input) is used in many court cases today and has been for years, at borders as well. It’s not about whether it’s personal, but rather about establishing intent.

Ignore at your own peril, and enjoy risk with no benefit.

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is likely not a coincidence that so many different countries simultaneously started pushing for age verification. I thought in many places it was related to the upcoming minimum age for social media. To verify age you need an ID. That's how we make it so most kids can't buy cigarettes, alcohol, thc, etc. You could argue social media shouldn't have a minimum age but that'll be the reality it looks like. How do we…

Sure, "think of the children", that's the classic excuse. Put on your tinfoil hat and ask yourself: why is that suddenly a topic in so many different countries?

Well "think of the children" was the PR reason for the US clamping down on TikTok, while the lawmakers and lobbyists behind it said pretty openly that it's about silencing criticism of Israel. So I would think it's the same thing in the EU.

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#413
post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, except the now redacted comments didn't indicate that was the case which is why I was asking more questions. It really was an extraordinary story without any extraordinary evidence.

What I find extraordinary is y'alls bullshit theory that it is extraordinary to claim the CPS apparatus wasn't used more before when it didn't even exist until like ~1974, and before then as a much different process. As usual, just blame the victim, then complain they don't provide evidence knowing full damn well child and family welfare services complaints are sealed and hidden from public oversight. This is how vam…

> What I find extraordinary is y'alls bullshit theory that it is extraordinary to claim the CPS apparatus wasn't used more before when it didn't even exist until like ~1974, and before then as a much different process.

You seem to have replied to the wrong post.

> As usual, just blame the victim, then complain they don't provide evidence knowing full damn well child and family welfare services complaints are sealed and hidden from public oversight. This is how vampires with these theories operate, first they make it illegal to get the records, then they make it illegal to even find out who the accuser is, then when you call them on it they say "ha ha, you don't have the evidence, that we made it illegal for you to get!" The whole system is designed to evade oversight, so what we are all left with is anecdotes that we have about our own childhood being so much different than the ones our children have after interactions with the authorities that have placed these restraints. But of course when you share them, they are only used against you by persons such as yourself (judging me for where I live, as if it's not going on all over the US). So people are reluctant to even share the anecdotes, and by law you generally cannot get the formal records (think of the children!) of these encounters nor the names of the accusers so basically they designed the whole legal structure to enable the muh citation crowd to be able to always pretend like the other side is just hiding from the evidence.

I'm not blaming anyone. Your experience is so wildly different from anything I've seen or heard living in many different areas across the US that I'm interested to hear more about it, and then you go on a tirade that has virtually nothing to do with the topic at hand instead of providing any remotely relevant information.

> Lol you responded to my comment saying it was an easement which meant I was not able to gate it. Although frankly your tone of questioning seemed to be more directed towards alluding I was a liar, than a genuine interest in the road.

I don't have a gate on the private road to my house either, yet no one drives down it to interrogate my kid about my whereabouts.

Is it a neighbor who also shares the private road? If so, that makes some sense but it sounds like you need to have a discussion with them. Why didn't you trespass them if not?

If this Karen calls CPS because they were trespassing and weren't aware that you were nearby, so what, other than wasting some taxpayer dollars? Has anyone ever had their kid taken by the state because of a claim like this? Since the answer is no, why are you so freaked out about it, way beyond being annoyed at this Karen (who does sound annoying in this story)?

Like I said to the other person, it's a series of extraordinary claims that frankly make almost no sense, and then you rant about tangential topics when asked for more detail. It doesn't make your anecdote more believable.

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is likely not a coincidence that so many different countries simultaneously started pushing for age verification. I thought in many places it was related to the upcoming minimum age for social media. To verify age you need an ID. That's how we make it so most kids can't buy cigarettes, alcohol, thc, etc. You could argue social media shouldn't have a minimum age but that'll be the reality it looks like. How do we…

Sure, "think of the children", that's the classic excuse. Put on your tinfoil hat and ask yourself: why is that suddenly a topic in so many different countries?

> Put on your tinfoil hat and ask yourself: why is that suddenly a topic in so many different countries?

Ooh I know, the elite classes across the globe have been exposed as degenerate pedophile subhumans. Knowing the information would release soon, they began to coordinate this campaign to provide lip service virtue signaling about child predation while also tightening their grip on the underclasses before it gets too heated.

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#415
post #6

I was sitting in a room the other day with a young adult, we were searching for additional algorithm learning materials. They searched in Google, and accept the cookies. They clicked on a website, and accepted those cookies too. They then started entering their email address to access another service. I was completely taken aback. I'm the sort of person that either rejects the cookies, or will use another site entire…

I had the same realization when seeing some one open up the outlook inbox and seeing a huge advert banner on the right of their screen. I had been so accustomed to using an ad blocker I realized the average person is bombarded with so much attention theft.

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#416
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The age verification proposal of the EU tries to do that, the government knows you used age verification (and I think the rough number of times you used it), but they don't know when or where you used it. https://ageverification.dev/av-doc-technical-specification/d...

I can't imagine countries with such strict speech laws, for example, would be willing to build a system that is technically incapable of linking the person visiting a sire and the site requesting verification. This proposal may have been updated since I read it previously, so I could be wrong now, but it didn't read as a true zero-knowledge proof as key steps in the flow still required a level of trusting the governm…

> I can't imagine

That's admirably honest, but the contents of your mind don't necessarily correspond to the world outside it.

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd be willing to bet the data being collected by tracking your browsing history has already been screwing you over in various aspects of your life, online and offline, but you won't be told when it happens or why. Ok, can you give me a plausible example of what that harm could be? This seems in line with the exact thing I said in my comment; every time I ask how it could harm me, I am given vague statements about…

A plausible example: Your insurance company knows how much money you make, and how fast you drive, and takes this into account when setting your insurance bill. Even if you never thought you gave them this information.

Another example: there are fallen countries that try to penalize abortion even in extreme cases (rape, incest) Having the data in your ad-exchange’s online profile that you bought a pregnancy test and a bus ticket to another state that allows abortion may be enough to get you jailed.

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#418
post #6

I was sitting in a room the other day with a young adult, we were searching for additional algorithm learning materials. They searched in Google, and accept the cookies. They clicked on a website, and accepted those cookies too. They then started entering their email address to access another service. I was completely taken aback. I'm the sort of person that either rejects the cookies, or will use another site entire…

It's not young people it's inpatient people. My mum was happy to browse the pirate bay and demonoid and all that, where all the adverts were massive throbbing cocks and hardcore porn lining the edges of the page, just so she could torrent the latest hidden object game. She became addicted to those games and it wasn't enough for me to give her credits to buy a few more of them, and because I was her son I was the tech support who had to help her unfuck her laptop after it got loaded up with another round of viruses.

The internet has maliciously complied with most if not all regulation applied to it which is where the new mass of banners and interstitials come from but the ultimate effect is to just beat the user into submission. See the EU cookie mandate and GDPR for how badly that turned out in terms of UX (even though the accountability is well in force under the hood, so the bad UX compliance failed and those sites are just screwing themselves).

In this way, Google was initially a hero but is now just another American Big Tech entity that is too big to fail and can do whatever it wants along with Meta and Amazon, and in fact now TikTok's US entity.

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the exact same logic as opting to not go through the hassle of registering to and casting your vote in your national elections (unless that physically isn't an option where you live) -- yes, your government isn't going to make a decision one way or another based on your vote alone. But will you affect the sociopolitical trends by whatever fraction of societal opinion you represent? It may be you don't believe…

Yes, the Paradox of Voting is the exact same situation [1]. My decision to vote is not rational, but I know if all the rational people don't vote that is bad, and so I focus on the other parts of voting, like civic pride and the little sticker that says "I voted" > It may be you don't believe in democracy at all, and that's fair, but consumer action is the only way you can affect business decisions, by joining the de…

It is pretty paradoxical and got me thinking. I don't know how to measure the value of my vote. I feel like the immediate value is less than the effort, but on the other hand, I don't think it's so simple. As you said, if no "rational" people vote, that's catastrophic and so I'm helping to maintain a larger system. Maybe a culture. Movements can have collective power no individual can have, but they can't exist without individuals. It's hard to measure the value or effects of a culture as they are often not clearly visible or direct. The effects can play out over a long time too.

About voting with your wallet, I agree that it'd be best if companies actually had to pay for those externalities you mentioned. If you have spare money to spend, you can view not choosing the cheapest option as supporting or donating. That's what I sometimes do when e.g. buying locally instead of ordering from somewhere far for cheaper. I can get local faster and it's more convenient, so there's lazyness, but thinking about it as supporting helps me rationalize it further (and it is true). I don't think it really hurts me more than buying something else that I don't strictly need. I see indirect value in trying to uphold things I like.

Re: I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services

#420
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The age verification proposal of the EU tries to do that, the government knows you used age verification (and I think the rough number of times you used it), but they don't know when or where you used it. https://ageverification.dev/av-doc-technical-specification/d...

The EU passing a law about the internet? What could possibly go wrong?

Please drink verification can to verify that you have verified your cookie preferences
Post reply on HN