Lmst

https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1rshc1f/i_traced_2_billion_in_nonprofit_grants_and_45/
Worth a read
#AgeVerification #Linux #FOSS #CaliforniaLaw #ColoradoLaw #NYLaw #privacy #osint #surveillance

I traced $2B in grants and 45 states' lobbying behind age‑verification bills

https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1rshc1f/i_traced_2_billion_in_nonprofit_grants_and_45/

#HackerNews #I #traced #$2B #in #grants #and #45 #lobbying #behind #age‑verification #bills

grants #ageverification #lobbying #politics #nonprofit

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has urged the government to focus on holding tech companies accountable rather than restricting the digital rights.

Turning off social media algorithms by default.

Implementing Section 30 of the Data Protection Act 2018. Make it illegal to target children with advertising or algorithms.

Regulate online advertising to limit how it targets both children and adults
#ageverification #MassSurveilance

https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/smartphones-6982642-Mar2026/

A few months ago, a Canadian judge got her #amazon , #google , #uber, credit cards accounts, etc. closed. She was doing her job investigating war crimes done in Afghanistan, including by the #USA #digitalSovereignty #warcrimes #ageVerification #surveillance fraxoweb.social/@frank/11621...

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:qhxpzugndudquk52pxjwlnsq/post/3mb67g5gqqk2s

Frank 🍁⚜️ (@frank@fraxoweb.soc...

"We’ve been saying this for years now, and we’re going to keep saying it until the message finally sinks in: mandatory age verification creates massive, centralized honeypots of sensitive biometric data that will inevitably be breached. Every single time. And every single time it happens, the politicians who mandated these systems and the companies that built them act shocked—shocked!—that collecting enormous databases of government IDs, facial scans, and biometric data from millions of people turns out to be a security nightmare."

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/02/25/hackers-expose-the-massive-surveillance-stack-hiding-inside-your-age-verification-check/

#Discord #AgeVerification #Infosec

RE: https://social.vivaldi.net/@lproven/116210581961738978

#USPolitics #AgeVerification

@Em0nM4stodon @PurpleStephyr

The lobbyists in the U.S.A. are apparently doing model legislation at this point. The differences in the initial wordings of the California, Colorado, and Illinois bills were fairly minor.

https://mastodonapp.uk/@JdeBP/116175882841550437

https://mastodonapp.uk/@JdeBP/116176048755057656

No objectors in California brought up that there are operating systems that don't follow the model of having softwares installed from Google Store/Microsoft Store/Apple App Store and having the people that run the store do the age, purchase, and other gatekeeping.

https://mastodonapp.uk/@JdeBP/116174297913947039

#CaliforniaLaw #ColoradoLaw #IllionoisLaw #AgeVerification #FreeSoftware

Why is there no coordinated response at least from major #Linux #distros to #AgeVerification laws imposed by US states? Nor organized resistance?

They're pretty much handling this the way US universities handled being targeted:

Fear, in isolation.
Fight, in isolation.
Lose, in isolation.

Including compliance in advance, where developers seem to be proud of sharing their "cool" ideas for implementing this pilot project and bridgehead for governmental control, in their systems.

So, where was the age verification at Epstein Island and Mar-a-Lago when creepy old rich men were raping and trafficking girls?

Given their predatory history why are Conservatives suddenly interested in protecting children.

#AgeVerification #Privacy #MassSurveillance #epstein #EpsteinFiles #maralago #trump #conservatives #MAGA #republicans

Thanks for getting the word out about this @Em0nM4stodon ! @Paulatics do you know the timeframe for likely action on the Canadian online harms bill?

We just successfully prevented the Washington state legislature from passing several age verification laws, so it certainly can be done! A couple of key takeaways:

The letter from a coalition of 90 organizations dedicated to LGBTQ+ rights, abortion access, rights for youth, privacy, and freedom of speech has a great summary of the harms of these technologies:

"For vulnerable communities, a biometric scan or an ID upload can serve as a huge obstacle, especially for low-income, unhoused, and undocumented people who already have to navigate an increasingly digital world, with less access to tech tools."

Online ID Checks Censor Abortion Information Age-Verification Laws Seek to Erase LGBTQ+ Identity from the Internet are also good at highlighting harms to vulnerable users.

Discord is the poster child for age verification's privacy problems. Discord Breach Sparks Age Verification & Third-Party Privacy Concerns highlights the risks of hackers getting at age verification data. Discord's age verification rollout has ties to Palantir co-founder and panopticon architect Peter Thiel Hackers Expose Age-Verification Software Powering Surveillance Web highlights how broadly age verification vendors share the data. US laws typically have clauses that put some limits on retention and sharing but in practice they're not enough.
Lobbyists have succeeded in convincing legislators that age estimation software works well ... but actually it doesn't. Error rates are high, and higher for people of color; and people. As a result, even if the vendor claims they're using some fancy-shmancy approach involving biometrics or selfies, in practice a lot of people have to send in their government IDs (with all the aspects of fraud that involves). My [updated written testimony for Appropriations[(https://privacy.thenexus.today/hb-1834-approps/#updated-written-testimony) discusses this, based on the data from the Australian Age Assurance Technology Trial (search for "You've probably heard lobbyists and vendors talk about how accurate today's age systems are, but reality begs to differ") and also talks about the privacy issues.
@eff's Why Isn’t Online Age Verification Just Like Showing Your ID In Person? counters one of the most common talking points of age verification proponents (although, I'm not sure how effective it is, so it might be worth taking another crack at this).
It's critical to highlight age verification's impact on 2SLGBTQIA_ communities. But, 2SLGTQIA2S+-focused organizations have so much on their plate that this may not be on their radar. So as well as contacting legislatures, reach out to 2SLGTQIA2S+-focused orgs, try to get them involved, and brief them on the issues.

#ageVerification #canada #privacy

How old am I? I'm old enough to have been taught not to give out information like my age to strangers on the internet.
#ageverification

Here is the age verification bill tracker, found in the official website of the advocacy group called the Free Speech Coalition (FSC). Beware of the "dystopian" #AgeVerification laws. So watch out for them. #DigitalRights #DigitalFreedom #PrivacyFirst

https://action.freespeechcoalition.com/age-verification-bills/

The age-assurance industry shouldn't exist.

Stop age verification now, and tell your governments and service providers they cannot trust these predatory corporations.

#AgeVerification #Privacy #MassSurveillance

How did we get to Age Verification?

Age Verification is the new anti-terrorism. The trojan-horse of legal bullshit designed to strip the public from their rights, claiming it is for the greater good. But why this? Why now? I suppose I want to process the way I see it via a play. It will have very strange names, like Publicus ( that represents the public ).

@PrivacyDigest I say that I feel

c o n t e m p t

towards the Californian regime

#regime #authoritarianism #contempt #linux #ageverification

UK asks social media companies to tighten up for under 13’s https://www.3dcandy.social/2026/03/uk-asks-social-media-companies-to-tighten-up-for-under-13s/ #3dcandy #3dcsocial #ageverification #boost #facebook #roblox #socialmedia

What I find baffling, is that people on a global scale, do not go on the streets, literally march on the streets, to tell their governments that this totalitarian movement on a global level needs to stop, otherwise we will stop the governments...

@Em0nM4stodon

#InfoSec #AgeVerification #Privacy #MassSurveillance #Authoritarianism