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

neilzone.co.uk

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

#431

Post by bpt3 »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #408
bpt3 wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did I say I trusted Firefox? I'm not the person who wants to redesign the browser extension ecosystem, but I can build Firefox from scratch and review the source code if I want, unlike Safari.

Right and you’re going to analyze every single line of code and verify it?

What exactly is your issue?

Once again, I'm not the one who said they would like to design a new browser extension framework, but I have created custom versions of Firefox that have all ability to phone home removed and modified extension support. So not verifying every single line of code, but making fairly substantial changes in the direction the parent poster wanted to go in.

I'm interested in a conversation about that, not you pestering me about whatever issue I seem to have triggered within you that resulted in your interjections in this conversation.

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

#432

Post by einpoklum »

Age verification is quite bogus. Parents can stand over their children's shoulder and force them to do or not do one thing or the other (and maybe not even them); but some website dictating which content young people can watch or not watch - not acceptable. And if you want to make a "protect the delicate mind of children" argument - let's first see some censoring of all of the ads, sponsored content, and state and corporate propaganda as unfit for viewing by underaged people; which is, of course, never going to happen.

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

#433

Post by frshgts »

cortesoft wrote: post #163
bArray wrote: 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 am in my mid forties, been working as a professional software developer for over 20 years. I click “accept the cookies” almost every time. I just personally don’t feel it’s worth the effort and cost to try to avoid it. What “dark pattern cookie trick” are you worried about? I just can’t come up with a scenario where it will actually harm me in any way. All the examples I have heard are either completely implausible…

I recently spoke with an engineer who was building a product using the information he is able to acquire from these data brokers. This includes every search query you've ever made, anything you've purchased with a credit card, and anything that is in the public record (i.e. a pending divorce case, or child custody dispute). He uses that information to generate a profile on leads to determine how much they can squeeze from this person in whatever deal they are making. (I'm not going to get more specific than that.) This person had no incentive to lie to me about what they were building.

The data trail you are creating is much more personal and invasive than you want to imagine, and in the wrong hands it could be used to devastating effect.

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

#434

Post by a456463 »

barbazoo wrote: post #391
bradley13 wrote: post #263

It is likely not a coincidence that so many different countries simultaneously started pushing for age verification. The decline of privacy, the increase in intrusive government surveillance, the increasing restrictions on free speech - this is all part of a very disturbing pattern. Our governments are becoming increasingly authoritarian, and these are the tools they use to keep the populace under control.

> 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…

How about you parent better and prevent your kids by educating them against the dangers of said things?Limit their time online and what they can do? Why should democracy be at stake and people's freedoms, just so you can get away with not parenting.

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

#435

Post by vntok »

shevy-java wrote: post #382
richardubright wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear what you're saying, and instinctually I feel gross about it. But, if enabling advertising allows the website I'm visiting to stay in business, I think that might be a trade-off worth making.

I don't understand that thought process. Why should I give up my data to any private entity? If their business model depends on ads, then I say it should die.

Then the fix is pretty easy, just don't visit their site?

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

#436

Post by paddez »

soopypoos wrote: post #253
cm2012 wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The effect of that data is serving you better ads. Its not a big deal. Dystopian governments have way better sources of citizen data than anonymized ad exchanges. It basically just powers product discovery in a giant global marketplace.

Would you write your name down the side of your car?

There's a subset of people in Ireland who are legally required to write down an ID on their vehicle, that can be matched to a name/photograph in seconds.

https://www.transportforireland.ie/getting-around/by-taxi/dr...

---

Additionally, in plenty of European Countries, it's pretty common to write your name on your address: https://c8.alamy.com/comp/B01RP4/personal-name-plates-at-blo...

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

#437

Post by fc417fc802 »

shiandow wrote: post #254
mcv wrote: post #228

I completely agree. The only services for which I will verify my age (and the entire rest of my ID) are bank accounts and other services involving a real legal requirement for real ID. The notion that you should upload a passport to random sites for age verification is unbelievably dangerous. That's a recipe for identity theft. And face scanning is also an invasion of privacy, not to mention very unreliable (my 16 ye…

That very much isn't the only right way, and it is far to close to government tracking activities online. For one it effectively allows governments to disallow someone from accessing the internet. All this to let you do stuff you were allowed to do anyway. The problem is handing kids admin level access on a device with full unfiltered access to several communication networks. You do not fix that by demoting everyone'…

I wholeheartedly agree. Worse, these verification "solutions" distract from fixing the actual underlying issue.

We need better supervision which demands better parental controls which demands better content filtering which demands better content classification.

So fix the root. Legally mandate a standardized protocol for self reporting the content rating of resources.

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

#438

Post by dangero »

frshgts wrote: post #433
cortesoft wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in my mid forties, been working as a professional software developer for over 20 years. I click “accept the cookies” almost every time. I just personally don’t feel it’s worth the effort and cost to try to avoid it. What “dark pattern cookie trick” are you worried about? I just can’t come up with a scenario where it will actually harm me in any way. All the examples I have heard are either completely implausible…

I recently spoke with an engineer who was building a product using the information he is able to acquire from these data brokers. This includes every search query you've ever made, anything you've purchased with a credit card, and anything that is in the public record (i.e. a pending divorce case, or child custody dispute). He uses that information to generate a profile on leads to determine how much they can squeeze…

Every search query you’ve ever made is not available from any data broker and if you hear otherwise someone is lying

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

#439

Post by frshgts »

xXSLAYERXx wrote: post #183
cortesoft wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in my mid forties, been working as a professional software developer for over 20 years. I click “accept the cookies” almost every time. I just personally don’t feel it’s worth the effort and cost to try to avoid it. What “dark pattern cookie trick” are you worried about? I just can’t come up with a scenario where it will actually harm me in any way. All the examples I have heard are either completely implausible…

Feel similarly. And to be honest, even when I do select decline all, I have little confidence that the function does what it says it does.

Having seen how these things are implemented in the field, your lack of confidence is definitely well placed. Most of these things send your denial request to /dev/null

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

#440

Post by cubefox »

a456463 wrote: post #217

Stop making your kids my problem! We have everything to hide. It is called personal identity. All data online managed by companies will always be misused, lost to scammers, blamed back to you for something you never did, and hunt you down.

> Stop making your kids my problem!

This is an interesting point: there is a trade-off between kids being denied access to inappropriate websites and adults not being forced to verify their age. We can't have both, so we must weigh which is more important. One could argue that protecting kids is clearly more important; on the other hand, there are way more adults in the world than kids, so more people are impacted with restrictions for adults.

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