Age Verification isn't a technical problem to solve. If you think that, you're missing the point.
It's a social problem used by authoritarian governments as an excuse for population control and censorship.
It's a fundamental attack on free speech and democracy.
It must not be accommodated.
It must be stopped.
#MassSurveillance #AgeVerification #Privacy #Democracy #HumanRights
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Well, today is the day. I'm finally "sorta happy enough to pull the trigger" on publishing the book I've been working on for a very long time. It's a technical history book: by a techie, for techies (although I think that between all the code samples, there is plenty of meat for "tech-adjacent" and "tech-interested" people). It tells the story of the Lisp programming language, invented by a genius called John McCarthy in 1958 and today still going strong (to the extent that many people see it as the most powerful programming language in existence).
And this is a time for shameless self promotion, even if you don't plan on buying the book, please repost 
. Self-publishing is self-marketing, so there we go.
If you do buy and read it, please let me know how you liked it!
The book landing page, berksoft.ca/gol, has links to all outlets where you can buy the book,
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Steve, ⊥ᵒᵚ Cᵸᵎᶺᵋᶫ∸ᵒᵘ ☑️, rk: it’s hyphen-minus actually, screwlisp, Rokosun, Rokosun, Liam Proven, Jure Repinc and Karl Voit reshared this.
New book: “The Genius of Lisp” by Cees de Groot
Looks like a fascinating read! They have provided chapter 8 as a PDF file downloadable gratis as a sneak-peek into the rest of the book, guess what it’s about:
Chapter 8: Sussman and Steel make Scheme
Awesome! I can’t wait to read that chapter, and then the rest of the book!
Details on the book homepage: berksoft.ca/gol/
#tech #software #Lisp #Scheme #SchemeLang #R7RS
Well, today is the day. I'm finally "sorta happy enough to pull the trigger" on publishing the book I've been working on for a very long time. It's a technical history book: by a techie, for techies (although I think that between all the code samples, there is plenty of meat for "tech-adjacent" and "tech-interested" people). It tells the story of the Lisp programming language, invented by a genius called John McCarthy in 1958 and today still going strong (to the extent that many people see it as the most powerful programming language in existence).And this is a time for shameless self promotion, even if you don't plan on buying the book, please repost :-). Self-publishing is self-marketing, so there we go.
If you do buy and read it, please let me know how you liked it!
The book landing page, berksoft.ca/gol, has links to all outlets where you can buy the book,
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Congratulations and thanks! I’m enjoying the epub edition from Lulu:
“People writing Lisp code to do old-style AI are engaged in a creative act of discovery, an attempt to understand… To discover requires a different sort of language, and it requires a different approach, captured well by the writer Joan Didion:
I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means.
–Joan Didion, “Why I Write”
Richard P. Gabriel
Foreword
#lisp
@Roundtrip
This is much the same as the way Michel de Montaigne wrote his famous essays in 16th century France: to try out his thoughts, from the French word essayer, "to try".
Thus was born the literary form of the essay, much to the chagrin of secondary school students everywhere.
But he was the ur-blogger, and is one of my heroes.
A great angle for telling the history of Lisp.
Is the ebook DRM-free?
“Those who cannot remember the past are destined to repeat it”
I’m not sure we should enshrine LISP into Claude Code, even though I once wrote LISP that flew in a cruise missile, and several “expert systems” for critical applications, it seems likely the “AI”s might choose LISP to enable the singularity.
Emacs and LISP - Live it, love it, remember it!
Once had a discussion with a fellow student about what would be the most powerful programming language.
He thought it was Forth.
I asked him which would be easier to program (taking e.g. Lisp as the other contender):
A Forth interpreter in Lisp, or
a Lisp interpreter in Forth.
You can guess who 'won'.
BTW my master's thesis was titled "CAR".
Standing for
1. The obvious one !
2. The initials of C.A.R. Hoare
3. Computer Aided Requirements
I am looking for to reading your book, The Genius of #Lisp.
Sorry to ask a trivial question here (but maybe others would like to know), I'm on the Kobo site to buy the ePub version of your book, but I'd like to confirm I can read it without their poor Kobo Reader app.
Otherwise, I'd love to send you the money directly...
@howard It's DRM free, you can read it wherever. You can also buy it through Lulu.com if you don't like Kobo, but to me it doesn't make much difference.
The most direct way is to buy the PDF on Shopify (all the various options are linked from the book site, by the way, berksoft.ca/gol). I personally much prefer reading technical books in PDF format, but then I have the accordingly-sized large format color e-Reader for it :).
But buy wherever you're happy to buy it.
Hmm. The Amazon blurb mutters about ELIZA, but ELIZA wasn't written in Lisp, it was written in MAD_SLIP. My reading of the original paper was that Joe W. essentially reinvented Lisp.
By the time I arrived at MIT (1972), Joel Moses' introductory CS/programming course was taught in Lisp (and was so good, I got a gig in the Mathlab group by passing a Lisp test), and the AI Lab's PDP-6 had a version of Eliza that was probably rewritten in Lisp.
@djl I came here to make the same comment.
SLIP was interesting because it used bidirectional links—a list can be traversed upwards as well as downwards. It was invented before Lisp had won the AI language wars.
Common Lisp story.
The time, 1987. The place: the 5th generation group in NEC's research lab in Tokyo. We (me and the locals) were frantically programming Common Lisp, me using GLSteele's manual, the locals using the Japanese translation. Every time there'd be a GLS-style joke (which said manual is seriously dense of), I'd check the Japanese translation, and every time, the translation completely missed the point and was complete gibberish.
Humor is hard. GLS humor, even harder.
@rjray yes, the insight is that I apparently fatfingered the update. I'm working with Pendora support, they are super helpful, but they also are in India, so first I had to wait out the weekend (teaches me to do updates on Saturday morning) and now it's a back-and-forth with 10.5 hours time difference...
I'm going to mail out everybody an updated PDF later today, it's easier 🙂
@rjray Try it again, support just pinged me that the broken download issue should have been fixed. If not, private message me with your order number and we'll work something out.
Glad you like the book!
Exciting!
Also promotion and sales is a noble task. You've created something important, sell it with pride! I am in business and even there, so many people avoid sales. It's not as difficult as people think. Take the bold step of making first contact (I don't know exactly what distribution looks like in books, but presumably conferences, media etc.) And then persist. It's not one and done. Keep trying to get through to your target. Be creative.
Good luck.
. Regardless, a plan is in place and will be executed.
I urge all developers of #Android apps to NOT pre-emptively obey the new terms of #Google requiring you to sign up for the Android Developer Console.
It looks like Google is attempting a power grab and wants to prevent ALL installations of Android apps without official Google approval; even those installed outside Google Play.
This is an attack on both developer and user freedom and unacceptable.
#KeepAndroidOpen #VendorLockIn #software #development #FreeSoftware
Advocating for Android as a free, open platform for everyone to build apps on.keepandroidopen.org
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Hacktivists tried to find a workaround to Discord’s age-verification software, Persona. Instead, they found its frontend exposed to the open internet, and that was just the beginning.
therage.co/persona-age-verific…
Three hacktivists tried to find a workaround to Discord’s age-verification software. Instead, they found its frontend exposed to the open internet.L0la L33tz (The Rage)
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There is a security researcher called Celeste, just like meee! Weirdly enough, that makes me happy 
"""
Persona’s exposed code compares your selfie to watchlist photos using facial recognition, screens you against 14 categories of adverse media from mentions of terrorism to espionage, and tags reports with codenames from active intelligence programs consisting of public-private partnerships to combat online child exploitative material, cannabis trafficking, fentanyl trafficking, romance fraud, money laundering, and illegal wildlife trade.
Once a user verifies their identity with Persona, the software performs 269 distinct verification checks and scours the internet and government sources for potential matches...
"""
So to keep kids safe from online predators, we're willing to *horribly* invade their privacy and sell all their data to predators? I see the system is working as intended 😮💨
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@alice i juste read and article by @Ivovanwilligen about persona and if he doesn't know about all this well now he does !
His article : thelocalstack.eu/posts/linkedi…
Ah yes, "let us protect children by scanning their faces". What could possibly be wrong??? 🤡
“the software ‘flags you as a “suspicious entity” based on your face alone’ …”
Yay! Phrenology 2.0!
and meanwhile the Australian government is claiming credit for protecting children by standing up to social media companies to force them to use this kind of tech.
I’m sure the pressure is in the opposite direction.
@ollicle Yep. It's brilliant from a certain perspective. Horrifying, sinister, but with a certain genius.
The tech firms get to say "Oh, no, the horrible government is making us do this. Oh well. Now give us your identity documents."
The governments get to give the appearance of responding to (genuinely) grieving parents, and say "we're protecting the children" which is game over for any alternative voice. All the while receiving funding (directly or indirectly) from the tech firms that created the problem or the supposed solution, or their fellow travellers.
And parents get to believe their children's safety is taken care of.
This level of centralisation of data is so so dangerous. Putting all our eggs in one basket digitally makes for a very inviting target, but this sort of infrastructure also concentrates power.
Knowledge is power, and this level of control can easily calcify our political systems and eat away at democracy.
Hey, maybe don’t verify yourself on LinkedIn. What an absolute shitshow: #privacy #linkedin #surveillancecapitalism https://thelocalstack.eu/posts/linkedin-identity-verification-privacy/Brian Sletten (Mastodon)
if something is free, never forget to ask who pays for it, who benefits?
I personally think it's great, though, that there are also people striving _for_ a better internet. That gives me hope. 🙂
One of the many reasons to be against #ageverification software
It gives the wrong people & companies tons of data, often #biometric ones
Therefore we transfers #power exactly the wrong people & #corporations
And as we can know latest since #Edwardsnowden companies do share data with governments
The cornerstone of the #chinese #surveillance #state is #realnameregistration
Don't give #biometrics to #evilcorp, especially not for cheap thrills
Do not hand data to #fascists
just don't use #discord and refuse to #ID as a matter of principle!
infosec.space/@kkarhan/1161142…
@deborahh@cosocial.ca @evacide@hachyderm.io That's why *"#KYC IS THE ILLICIT ACTIVITY!"* - I mean, there's a [*trivial bypass*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LsF4FF6gO4) but #Discord itself is garbage!Kevin Karhan :verified: (Infosec.Space)
We are now in the last 48 hours of the campaign, and if you are on the fence, we just published a full breakdown video (13 minutes) of the progress so far :)
youtube.com/watch?v=WOzfSodBBR…
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.Mecha (YouTube)
This is how #Holos currently handles #E2EE DMs over #ActivityPub. Holos is a project we develop alongside #Fedilab.
Your private messages, readable only by you and your recipientholos.social
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This week in #FDroid (TWIF) is live:
* Client banners, did you forget something?
* Basic 2.0-alpha3, test test test!
* Google Push w/o proprietary libs
* #DolphinEmulator huge updates and stories
* #ImageToolbox gets #AI
* #Luanti #Minetest texture fix
* #Nextcloud Hub 26 Winter upgrade
* #ProtonVPN w/o #OpenVPN
+ one new app
& 291 updates
- five archived
Where were you during the 2026 Android freedom wars? Get involved: f-droid.org/2026/02/20/twif.ht…
This Week in F-Droid TWIF curated on Friday, 20 Feb 2026, Week 8 F-Droid core During out talks with F-Droid users at FOSDEM26 we were baffled to learn most w...f-droid.org
Hi there, we've been building it for the last 15 years and more, you're welcome!
Want it faster? Better? Easier? Feel free to start funding #FLOSS projects!
Europeans are dangerously reliant on US tech. Now is a good time to build our own | Johnny Ryan theguardian.com/commentisfree/… #AiArtificialIntelligence #EuropeanUnion #Computing #DonaldTrump #Internet #Ecommerce #Google #Amazon #Microsoft #UsNews #Technology #EuropeEuropeans are dangerously reliant on US tech. Now is a good time to build our own | Johnny Ryan
By trusting the US, we handed Trump a kill switch. Yet Europe’s digital sovereignty is an achievable goal, says civil liberties campaigner, Johnny RyanJohnny Ryan (the Guardian)
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Google announced that as of September 2026, it will no longer be possible to develop apps for the Android platform without first registering centrally with Google. This registration will involve:
- Paying a fee to Google
- Agreeing to Google’s Terms and Conditions
- Providing government identification
- Uploading evidence of the developer’s private signing key
- Listing all current and future application identifiers
#android #opensource #keepandroidopen
Advocating for Android as a free, open platform for everyone to build apps on.keepandroidopen.org
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Getting a monopoly to be less shitty is nice, but wouldn't building an alternative be much better?
There is already the french /e/ OS that exists. I wish european countries would start building on it and improving it. Thereby breaking the shitty monopoly.
Europe seems to have suddenly awaken and started actively looking for alternatives to american big tech.
And a Google free phone would be a thing.
Android is based on Linux and was a free and open source software. It has been highjacked.
Being free open source, it belongs to humanity. It can be european if europeans work on it. It can be japanese if Japan works on it.
Is /e/ completely freed from Google dependency? Probably not, but it is definetely something to work on.
(This is a non-tech person’s somment.)
@gael
J’ai acheté un cellulaire seconde main* fonctionnant avec /e/ pour en faire l’essai. Et c’est franchement très bien.
Parce que toute la procédure d’installation était franchement intimidante et le risque de transformer mon cellulaire en brique ne m’excitait pas. C’est sans doute un des grands obstacle à une adoption plus généralisée de la patente.
(* D’un fournisseur anglais pour ne pas acheter aux États-Unis. Ici, on est pas mal à être franchement remontés contre les É.-U...)
I had never heard of Jolla and SailfishOS. Thank you. I will look it up.
It’s a great time to develop more Linux‑based mobile apps to replace Android, which is becoming increasingly closed. Linux phones are improving every day, but they still lack sufficient developer support. I’ve seen several Android apps recently ported to Linux, and I hope more people will start buying these phones—especially in Europe, where digital sovereignty remains insufficient.
You can follow Linux‑mobile accounts such as @furilabs, and @postmarketOS to stay updated!
The FLX1s from Furi Labs runs a fully optimized Linux system called FuriOS, packing a lightning fast user interface, 3 hardware switches for microphone, camera and modem/GPS, and a privacy centric approach like no other.Furi Labs: Planned Permanence
The independent European Do It Together (DIT) Linux phone, shaped by the people who use it.Jolla Shop
I'm presuming this £ucks over LineageOS as well?
(not that it made much sense requiring a google phone)
FFS...
Are they seriously just *trying* to piss us off...??
No better reason to de-google and no better time to de-google...
🤷♂️🤦♂️🤡🫏🖕🖕💩💩
The independent European Do It Together (DIT) Linux phone, shaped by the people who use it.Jolla Shop
It would not surprise me one bit if everyone pushing back on them as suggested on that site lost their Google access entirely, from Gmail to appdev.
Did it anyway because it's the right thing to do, but have alternate plans in place.
A privacy respecting Linux-based European alternative to dominating mobile operating systems developed by Finnish company Jolla.Sailfish OS
When I was in grad school, for Computer Science, I had a course where we programed apps on our phones to do some sort of sensor data collection.
Mine was focused on sound and noise pollution.
The students with apple phones were massively handicapped by Apple policies.
It's disappointing, to say the least, that Android will also be handicapping.
Google announced that as of September 2026, it will no longer be possible to develop apps for the Android platform
for the android platform, or for their market?
Sometimes the smartphone world makes me really want to wipe the thing and figure out a way to install Windows 98.
(No, really, the way I see it, there are way too many things - at least in Android - that are a step backwards compared to Windows 98, and I'm aware that system is far from flawless (and that a non-locked-down UNIX-like system would be much better)... but at least you could install what you wanted to, you could access the whole filesystem, and you didn't need system changes to access application data).)
And the important additional note is that this is about the *Android* platform, not the *Google Play* platform, as I understand it.
So this affects F-Droid users just the like.
Fork the last free version. This could be the new "vanilla Android". Custom ROMs could use this as a basis as well as smartphone manufacturers.
If that works, Android was taken away from #Google.
I'm not sure how I'll be responding to this because I'm not currently an Android app developer and not likely to be.
In principle I'd like to deGoogle, but it's not really an option for many, and it is the many that will be needed in order for developers to retain a user base.
I'd love to see this boost Android and iOS alternatives, and might switch as a way of supporting that. But which?
I looked at #GOS recently and it looked promising, but don't think it avoids this.
@jbz
🤷♂️
techhub.social/@jolla/11610863…
9,000 pre-orders. Time to celebrate. 🎉This is not just a number. It is 9,000 people who chose privacy, independence, and a different kind of phone. People who decided that their data is theirs. People who believe something better is possible.
Secure your Jolla Phone at the special batch price before February ends. If you have been considering it, this is the moment.
Let's make it together. ❤️
#Jolla #SailfishOS #DigitalSovereignty #European #PrivacyFirst #Linux #CommunityPowered
Jolla Phone Pre-order Voucher
The independent European Do It Together (DIT) Linux phone, shaped by the people who use it.Jolla Shop
I personally think the mandatory #Android app developer registration that #Google wants to enforce starting in September 2026 and that will prevent the installation of apps of non-registered developers is in breach of Article 5 (5) of the EU Digital Markets Act.
I therefore just sent a complaint to the European Commission and asked them to enforce the requirements of the EU DMA.
You probably refer to Recital 50 of the Digital Markts Act and its implementation in Article 6 of the Digital Markets Act?
I would assume the last sentence of that recital to be relevant as well: „The gatekeeper should be prevented from implementing such measures as a default setting or as pre-installation.“
THREAD:
Selam fediverse friends,
A first in my career: I've co-produced an episode of the Al Jazeera TV show...The Listening Post and it will air tomorrow!
As you all know well, outrage over genocide in Gaza means Israel has lost the streets and the campuses of the western world.
So, Israel appears to have decided to focus its efforts on selling its narrative to....African audiences.
Also...tomorrow's episode will also feature the queen herself...Dr @timnitGebru
aljazeera.com/video/the-listen…
A weekly programme that examines and dissects the world’s media, how they operate and the stories they cover.Al Jazeera
Since 2024, Israel has been quietly flying out delegations of journalists, influencers, politicians, even religious figures from different African states. The carefully curated trips take African visitors to tourist and religious sites, the Knesset, and Oct 7 attack sites.
Nothing that shines a light on the suffering of pesky Palestinians of course!
There have been trips with delegations from Morocco, Cameroon, Senegal, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and more going so far.
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The trips have led to mixed results: in some African countries, strong backlash has occurred, as was the case with Morocco and Kenya. So, Israeli authorities have been selective: it is now selecting journalists from countries run by dictatorships, where there are no press freedoms. i.e Ethiopia.
For Kenya, where there is a strong media culture, there were no journalists willing to go, so Israel recruited influencers and gospel music singers.
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Israel appears to be studying the results, country by country. For instance, following intense backlash from Moroccan journalists against colleagues who traveled to Israel, this year, Israel could not find journalists from Morocco. It sent a cultural troupe to instead.
All in all, our weakness as Africans? Too many dictatorships. A robust press culture would have us better resist efforts by not only Israel, but China and Russia as well, to sell us questionable narratives that violate humanity.
Tomorrow, we shine a light on Israel's African psy-op, and hold our fellow African journalists, responsible for coverage that dehumanizes Palestinians and downplays their suffering...to account.
Tomorrow, on Al Jazeera's The Listening Post.
Airs at 19h00 GMT. I would appreciate your time!
Cheers,
-ZZ.
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How did bacterial flagella evolve? 01: Here's what we know
youtube.com/watch?v=eFC9VzexRU…
I feel like one of the best things you can do to make the world a better place is to educate others and spread knowledge, seeing people make videos like this gives me hope 🙂
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.Stated Clearly (YouTube)
If you would like to help financially support the development of a new Wayland compositor for Xfce, you can do so by contributing funds via our #OpenCollective accounts.
For US contributions:
opencollective.com/xfce
For EU contributions:
opencollective.com/xfce-eu
These contributions will help pay for the funding of longtime Xfce core developer Brian Tarricone to create xfwl4, a brand-new Wayland compositor for Xfce.
Thank you for your support!
#Xfce #Wayland #Rust #FOSS #Linux
Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for UNIX-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and low on system resources, while still being visually appealing and user friendly.opencollective.com
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Just sent some € to support the project :)
Xfce is the first DE I ever used when I started to use Linux, as my first distro was XUbuntu at the university back in 2014. I had the pleasure to install it on my laptop a few months ago, after years of using GNOME, and I was glad to be able to use it again! I sure hope this desktop environment continues its life ☺️
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Unpopular opinion:
Identity verification isn't so unattractive in 2026 — social media is destroying democracies via anonymous armies of bot people steered by aggressive foreign actors like Putin and Musk.
The libertarian model that the Internet was built on is failing societies.
I don't agree with the premise that there is no possibility for a solution that takes various factors into consideration.
@DiogoConstantino So? What's wrong with trying harder? Is laziness an excuse?
I want more fellow tech people to step away from the libertarian ideals of the current Internet, and start coming up with ways to help save democracy from aggressive states and their disinformation campaigns.
@txtx @DiogoConstantino @dalias
Stepping away from the libertarian ideals of the internet is just an indirect way of saying you want the internet to step towards authoritarian ideals.
And you can take that evil shit and shove it. Have you not noticed what authoritarians do with power yet??
Are you aware that all of our social security information and most of our medical records have already been compromised? You REALLY want to fork over more personal information to some cloud where hackers and data brokers and fascist regimes can just play around with it? Once that data is getting hacked and spoofed, they'll just keep demanding more invasive data to prove ID-- right down to our retinal scans and fucking DNA.
None of this shit is about protecting kids, no matter what pretty claims they put on the tin. NONE OF IT.
@violetmadder @txtx @DiogoConstantino @dalias
You might want to read this: laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/re…
@violetmadder @txtx @DiogoConstantino @dalias
That's the list of regulations you need to adhere to, as motor vehicle manufacturer, to make sure that the thing you build is safe for people to drive, at what speeds and under what conditions.
By carefully restricting vehicle manufacture to prevent specific kinds of harm under specific sets of conditions, the people _in_ those vehicles are free _from_ all sorts of risks, and more free _to_ travel in them safely.
330 pages of oppression!
@txtx @DiogoConstantino @dalias
Enacted by a hard-fought effort from folks like Ralph Nader, yes. In the 60s and 70s.
That's an example everybody loves citing, because it worked. And the stuff that fixed the hole in the ozone. Thing is, nothing anywhere near as comprehensive or effective has been acheived in other industries since, because the corporations vowed to never let it happen like that again.
So. In a world where the regulating mechanisms have already been CAPTURED by immense money, how exactly do you expect regulation to be achieved now?
Tons of awful things are already thoroughly against all kinds of laws, but continue happening anyway. The "international rules-based order" is proving to be a hollow fantasy. Genocides continue unabated, no justice in sight.
Laws are the pieces of paper that formalize power structures with official documentation-- but they're just paper. Labels. Where exactly is the power going to come from, to make billionaires pay taxes or make genocidal war profiteers stop killing people?
How do you regulate the internet without simply lining up to put your own leash into the hands of these technofascist monsters whose corporate feudalism is turning the whole idea of national sovereignty into an obsolete joke?
How does that actually work??
"How do you regulate the internet
[...] How does that actually work??
These are excellent questions, exactly the kind we should be asking IMO. Some ideas: ban oligarch social platforms completely. Ban foreign platforms when they go over a certain market share. Ban platforms that don't adhere to local law.
I thought this was a niche idea but it turns out that, according to recent polls, some of these are very popular positions here in Europe — including age restrictions.
@dalias @violetmadder @txtx @DiogoConstantino
Libertarian just means you're not the boss of me and selfish now. We've done that experiment and now we have the evidence. The libertarian ethos and its loudest adherents hasn't protected us from totalitarianism at all. It and they have endorsed and supported it.
Regulation isn't oppression. The fact that you don't need to worry what's in the water when you turn the tap doesn't give you less freedom, it gives you far more.
cosocial.ca/@mhoye/11604153713…
In any case, it turns out we have an irrefutable answer to this question now, and it's "Nobody. Nobody but ourselves."bsky.app/profile/normative.bsk…
@dalias @txtx @DiogoConstantino
I am talking about small l libertarianism here, not American Libertarian party crap.
And I truly don't understand how the hell anyone thinks regulation is going to magically fix the fact that oligarchs have already bought control of the courts.
There are so many really good things in the world that are neither libertarian nor authoritarian.
@bencourtice I think we need a more sophisticated approach. I'll give an example:
Twitter users generally appreciated the blue checkmark that verified official accounts.
I think that, in working democracies, an opt-in verification for citizens could be an answer. This may mean being an ID to a post office, but we can still make it anonymous so that neither the govt nor the server owner knows which ID was used to verify which account.
Then I can safely ignore unverified users.
@plock @bencourtice I would know that A) it's a real person and B) that person is in the EU. The rest I can ignore or treat with caution, which would be especially easy if X/Facebook/TikTok are banned.
This is a massive improvement over the current situation where every other person is a scam artist botperson.
@bencourtice I agree, this is a problem.
On the other hand, I think we have a somewhat false sense of security with internet anonymity.
What I mean is, when the state decides to go after people, they have the means. In Iran, they shut down the Internet and start mass killings. In the US, people snitch to ICE. And so on.
Maybe social media isn't the place where we should be seeking safety or freedom.
@txtx
Honestly most of the worst people on the internet are unashamed to go by their actual names and faces.
This is obviously true on Facebook and LinkedIn, but if you ever go to fascist Telegram groups, a lot of them are full of people with real names, and profile pics of them with sunglasses and baseball caps sitting in their cars. They aren't ashamed of who they are or what they do, and they aren't afraid of consequences.
@passenger Those worst people are mostly bots or fake. Rarely are they using their real names. ICE wear masks.
The ones who go public: they should be in court facing anti hate laws. But instead they're protected because they don't even live in my country. X and Facebook need to be banned where I am to fix this.
@txtx
I speak as a somewhat experienced antifascist who started doing infiltrations around 2013-2014, in the start of what was later called the alt-Right; and who has done more than his share of street actions.
There's a myth that these sorts of accounts are mostly bots, and I really don't think that's true. Like yes, some of them are impostors, that is certainly the case. But if you look at the polls, Reform is at 28.6% in the UK and RN is at 35% in France. That means a quarter of Brits and a third of French hold fascist views, and so if you see a quarter to a third of social media accounts being openly fascist, that's about what you'd expect. That's just who Europeans are.
In my infiltration work, one thing I notice is that the hyperonline gommos tend to have anime avatars and stuff like that, but the more scary people, those with jobs and houses and families and blood-and-soil politics, those tend to be the same person online as they are in real life. In antifascist communities we are deeply security-conscious, but these people really tend not to be. If you wear a mask around them they'll get suspicious and, in my experience, will lecture you about how covid is fake. Their security doesn't come from anonymity but from tight social conformity and from knowing that the cops agree with them.
They are the people who try to propel Jordan Bardella and Nigel Farage into office, will queue up to work at Frontex, and who have scary domestic violence records. They are not bots, they are worse than that.
@passenger The UK/Brexit are perfect examples of foreign dictators influencing citizens via social media disinformation campaigns, anonymous & bot accounts etc.
This is not something I want to see further replicated anywhere in the EU.
Being an 'anti-facist' on X is a contradiction. It's like hating on Mickey Mouse at Disneyland.
@txtx
Where they go, we go. If you want to know what Mickey Mouse is up to, rather than just hate him and want to avoid him, Disneyland is the place to be.
(I don't monitor twitter though, it's just a garbage hellsite, and most of the real fash are elsewhere. British hard fash mostly use Telegram, soft fash mostly use Whatsapp, and it's worth monitoring both.)
@passenger I seriously question if following around fascists/racists has done any good for society in the last decade or so.
On the contrary it seems like a bad addiction, and it's only getting worse because we're just injecting more of it into our daily lives. Why do we need to listen to them? Are we their lackeys?
@txtx
We listen to them so we know what they're up to and can oppose it.
To give an example the media knows about: in early 2023 there was a group of fascists who intended on storming a Drag Queen Story Hour in South London. When the fascists arrived they found that we were there ahead of time and we had big sticks.
Bonk.
If we weren't in their chats monitoring their planning, how would we have been able to bonk?
@passenger So you had criminals using their real names on social media to publicly organize violent criminal activities?
Do you have a source for this?
@txtx
Yes. The cops often monitor these chats so they can turn up and protect the fascists in question. Sometimes they don't and then we have fun.
An example is UKIP's planned attack on mosques in Birmingham this very weekend. You are welcome to come to Birmingham to oppose them if you want. There will probably be a lot of cops there to keep the fascists safe.
It's important to understand that violent fascist thuggery gets organised regularly in the UK by people with their real names and real faces, under the full knowledge of the police, and said police do nothing. At worst they might briefly hold a few high-profile people, but it's not serious: is Danny Tommo behind bars? Is Tommy Robinson, or Mark Collett, or Nick Tenconi?
If the concept of the rule of law has been abandoned by the state, you should probably consider your fallback option. Because mine was to get a mask and hoodie.
@passenger This just solidifies my opinion that I absolutely do not want to replicate UK politics in the EU. Everything about it sounds like a failure, from using social media to organize crime to having stick fights with thugs.
I demand more from my government.
@txtx
Be careful, a lot of EU states are basically the same. Some (Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Italy, Hungary) have already gone further and let the fascists into power. Others (France, Hungary) have banned organised antifascist groups.
You have chosen not to tell me where you live. That's fine! Privacy is everyone's right. Your country of residence may not have openly embraced fascism yet. But it creeps in, and by the time it reveals itself it's already too late. You should consider what, apart from voting, you're going to do.
@passenger And the rise of far right parties can be directly attributed to the rise in anonymous bot armies paid and organized by foreign dictators.
I say: tackle the problem at the core.
The core?
The core is cruelty. The core is the enclosure of the commons; the backbone of how capitalism oppresses millions. All rooted in abuse culture and kyriarchy. The cultural premise that some people are superior and thus entitled to control those they deem inferior through coercion. All of this flows from that.
Troll farms are just ONE tool in the toolbox of corruption.
@txtx
If you're determined to proceed via electoral channels, then a good starting point might be to refuse to vote for any party which restricts antifascist organising or uses the power of the law against antifascists. France's banning of Jeune Garde, for example, is unacceptable.
You could also press for the cessation of EU policies which fascists love, for example Frontex or the support of Israel's ongoing campaign of genocide.
As ever, it is tempting to see the enemy as an external threat, but this misses the point. Vladimir Putin is not the main threat to Finland, for example. Riika Purra is the main threat to Finland, and she doesn't have to hide her face for safety.
@txtx @passenger
You are seemingly unaware of the huge amounts of organizing that have occurred on social media for positive reasons. I'll grant that social media run by corporate predators is of course warped and untrustworthy, but that is not the inherent nature of social media or the internet as a whole.
Likewise, I'm willing to bet you have NO CLUE what antifascist action even is or how it works, much less what it has accomplished. Even under regimes that are seriously unfriendly to antifa in general, their work has led to the criminal convictions of some truly despicable rings of bastards.
You're jumping to a lot of conclusions in your own brain, so fully confident in your smartness that your blind spots are yawning chasms.
Less self-referential speculating, moar reading.
@txtx @passenger
People need to understand the harm done to people and society by gafam.
The only account I had was on linkedin, to have professional visibility.
But this too is populated by [boosted] "influencers" and "followers".
My way to connect with ppl makes all this boring to use.
I find mastodon here more convenient to link with ppl having the same interests.
Not following and not leading.
No ads. Perfect for me.
Facebook : fuck off, I have enough friends.
@txtx the "veri" part is already problematic*
having these centralized authorities to establish identity is indistinguishable from having these centralized authorities dictate identity
there are better models of steering people away from abuse that do not involve creating more systems that become more chokepoints for abusers to exploit once they find their way in (as they have now, and curiously just in time for these chokepoints to be promoted)
*EDIT: and also the "fication" part
etymonline.com/word/verify
> from Medieval Latin verificare "make true,"
"prove to be true, confirm by reality," from Old French verifier "substantiate, find out… See origin and meaning of verify.etymonline
No it isn't.
They already have all of your info. We know this because the FBI just inadvertently revealed it by producing video evidence publicly that wasn't supposed to exist.
They have your info and they are feeding it to your government freely and without a warrant.
ID verification is just a simple means of proving you confirmed someone isn't a child.
Dave Rahardja reshared this.
@brouhaha can you explain this gap in your social media posting history?
You seem to have forgotten to inform us of this e-mail you’ve been using since 2015…
e-ID Switzerland: The state issued digital identity, secure, privacy-compliant, free of charge – for everyday use, public authorities, and businesses.www.eid.admin.ch
If there was a real need for age verification, it should be implemented on alcohol selling website, bet websites, and so on. Age verification is just disguised censorship.
Once you realize it’s not “age verification”, but actually “identity verification”, then it’s easy to understand that the real goal is “papers, please” for the entire internet.
I am sure other reply guys also told you in Europe with a e-wallet you can prove your age without uploading anything. edri.org/our-work/showing-your…
still doesnt make age verification for websites a good idea
The European Commission is close to a ‘solution’ that could force people to use their government-issued ID to get online.EDRi (European Digital Rights (EDRi))
👌🎉
The package is underway and can be contributed to here (targeting the testing branch): github.com/YunoHost-Apps/holos…
Contribute to YunoHost-Apps/holos_ynh development by creating an account on GitHub.GitHub
While I'm no longer active in many commercial #SocialMedia platforms, as a #science communicator I still keep an eye on them to see how people (mis)understand #astronomy, and incorporate those lessons to my job.
Today Facebook crushed my soul with this abomination.
A while ago I wrote this article explaining how to spot fake #astrophotography images using science:
eso.org/public/blog/csi-astron…
That article has now been superseded by "this is fake because <waves hands angrily in despair>"
reshared this
Rokosun, Rokosun, trending_bot, Prof. Sam Lawler, myrmepropagandist, hypebot, Simon Brooke, Debbie Goldsmith 🏳️⚧️♾️🇺🇦, Mastodon Migration, Chu 朱, Daniel MacPhee 🔬🧬🧫🇨🇦 and Ciara reshared this.
The replies to that post are a rollercoaster of emotions:
1. people who think it's real (I genuinely don't fault them, if you've never seen a real one you're not expected to know this is fake)
2. people who say it's fake but then use it to justify some "flat Earth/physics is fake" b.s.
3. people who correctly explain why this is fake
4. people mad at (3) because they incorrectly think that (3) are science deniers like (2)
Why are we in the darkest timeline.
reshared this
Rokosun and Debbie Goldsmith 🏳️⚧️♾️🇺🇦 reshared this.
@gunchleoc how embarrassing 😳😅 if i’d thought about it for another minute i would’ve put that together with my memory of how science works (probably… i hope lol)
note to self: don’t toot while high
Why?
Because we were conditioned to believe that science was a-political, like it was when Galileo was forced by the Inquisition to submit to their "a-political" views about the universe.
So, we swallowed the blue pill and set out to enjoy the "end of history" in the ideal politico-economic system where Google, FB etc were "democratizing" technology, completely a-politically of course, and just making an a-political buck on the side.
We sleep-walked into a nightmare.
Before deleting, I only ever used facebook for meme groups.
I got tired of correcting physics, even in physics groups― some of which were sharing some psuedoscience spiritual dude. People were like "oh, so you do know!". Others, "you don't know anything!". Others still, "That's wrong. Explain it then!"
For Ads, I'd just report as harassment.
Staying just within the meme groups meant I seen no ads. But my data was still taken.
oh, this is truly awful
And yes, most of the older people on FB still simply don't have the background to question it
hey thank you for posting your article, it was a great read, and one of the (real!) photos is gonna be my inspiration for a daily art prompt today
Also, I share your "uuuuuuugh" at the folks enthusiastically and uncritically sharing these.
Few weeks ago, a friend posted this pic on our WhatsApp group. Most of them have PhDs. Even after I pointed out that the image is fake, the reasons why it is fake and how to find out the actual locations of the planets in the night sky, they remained unconvinced.
There is an element of human psychology here where people simply like and share sensational stuff, science and logical thinking be damned.
Politicians and their enablers know how to exploit these tendencies, now with AI.
reshared this
Ewen Bell 📸 and Juan Carlos Muñoz reshared this.
A couple of real images for comparison.
Ruthlessly stolen from Wikipedia, one of the still sane places on the internet.
🚨 New research from ETH Zurich has found that popular password manager's zero-knowledge encryption claims don't fully hold up if their servers are compromised. ⚠️
🔑 LastPass, Dashlane & Bitwarden were identified as being affected, this is significant because cloud password managers commonly claim that their user's data would be unaffected if they were compromised. 👾
#privacy #security #passwordmanager
theregister.com/2026/02/16/pas…
: Researchers demo weaknesses affecting some of the most popular optionsConnor Jones (The Register)
✅ Dashlane & Bitwarden promptly issued fixes.
❌ LastPass did not issue a fix and stated: "our own assessment of these risks may not fully align with the severity ratings assigned by the ETH Zürich team."
💡In 2022, LastPass experienced a breach that impacted 1.6 million users due to inadequately strong technical and security measures within their infrastructure.
The best time to switch from LastPass was yesterday; the second best is today. 🗑️
Here's what we recommend ⬇️
Rokosun reshared this.
☁️ Secure cloud password managers
➡️ For more info visit our site: privacyguides.org/en/passwords…
#passwordmanager #security #privacyguides
Password managers allow you to securely store and manage passwords and other credentials.Privacy Guides
📍 Secure local password managers
➡️ For more info visit our site: privacyguides.org/en/passwords…
#passwordmanager #security #privacyguides
Password managers allow you to securely store and manage passwords and other credentials.Privacy Guides
Password managers allow you to securely store and manage passwords and other credentials.Privacy Guides
Lastpass is an absolutely AWFUL company.
After LogMeIn got their hands on them the prices skyrocketed from $12 to $24 to $36 to $48 a year for their premium plan.
I switched to Bitwarden, who have kept their premium plan at just $10 a year, for many years now.
With ownership of Lastpass now in the hands of not one, but two investment companies, one really has to question where Lastpass's priorities lie.
Really bad for open source. Hoping this is a fixable issue. Many projects needing to reduce/reject external contributions lately.
Dear community, due to the rise of unsolicited and "by surprise" pull requests, all AI generated, Shlink won't be accepting external contributions anymore. Thank those who don't care.I'll document this decision in the following days. For now, the option has been disabled in main Shlink repos.
You can still open issues and discussions.
@xfce i should really do this
you should too, i want my desktop to stay relevant 
RE: floss.social/@xfce/11597029645…
If you would like to help financially support the development of a new Wayland compositor for Xfce, you can do so by contributing funds via our #OpenCollective accounts.For US contributions:
opencollective.com/xfceFor EU contributions:
opencollective.com/xfce-euThese contributions will help pay for the funding of longtime Xfce core developer Brian Tarricone to create xfwl4, a brand-new Wayland compositor for Xfce.
Thank you for your support!
#Xfce #Wayland #Rust #FOSS #Linux
Xfce - Open Collective
Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for UNIX-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and low on system resources, while still being visually appealing and user friendly.opencollective.com
Seirdy likes this.
divVerent
in reply to Em • • •There are technical solutions without mass surveillance.
But I am not optimistic enough to believe those will be demanded.
Specifically because of the lack of surveillance, and the lack of monopoly protection for big tech.
Pretty sure big tech lobbyists are making sure the worst approaches possible get put into law. Not because they are evil per se, but because it strengthens their monopolies.
Cassandrich
in reply to divVerent • • •@divVerent No there are not. This is a fundamental fact of mathematical logic. Given a proposed age verification system you can prove that it's either trivially bypassed (doesn't actually verify age) or violates key privacy properties.
Em's point is spot-on. If you think of this as a problem to be solved, you are going to be wrong and you are going to be a useful fool for fascists.
Ed Wiebe
in reply to Cassandrich • • •@dalias @divVerent Knowing how old someone is does not limit their speech nor their ability to vote (we verify age for that already, and for many other reasons). Age verification isn’t state censorship. I suppose it could be a way to limit anonymous speech. That isn’t a Right where I am from (nor is ‘free’ speech). I doubt anonymous speech is a Right anywhere.
I have no doubt it’s absolutely technically feasible in a way that infringes on no one’s privacy. Ultimately though, yes, it could be abused by bad actors. Like everything else in civilisation we need some balance of enforcement to deal with those people.
Cassandrich
in reply to Ed Wiebe • • •@edwiebe @divVerent There is no way to know how old someone is without attestation by some authority who knows their identity. This precludes participation by anyone not known to such an authority (undocumented, outside of jurisdiction, etc.) or for whom it is not safe to let that authority know they are participating. And this is only the tip of the iceberg.
You are dangerously wrong, and you should stop advocating about things you're dangerously wrong about.
Talya (she/her) 🏳️⚧️✡️
in reply to Cassandrich • • •@dalias @edwiebe @divVerent
while that's true, it is possible to make such an attestation without destroying privacy (see soatok.blog/2025/07/31/age-ver…).
however, even if you do that, it'll still be morally wrong in most cases.
and also, corporations are deliberately not going for the private solution, and governments are shifting the blame to users. the Czech government recently admitted social media is already illegal for teens (due to privacy laws), but they want new laws anyway.
Age Verification Doesn’t Need to Be a Privacy Footgun - Dhole Moments
Soatok (Dhole Moments)Cassandrich
in reply to Talya (she/her) 🏳️⚧️✡️ • • •⊥ᵒᵚ Cᵸᵎᶺᵋᶫ∸ᵒᵘ ☑️
in reply to Cassandrich • • •divVerent
in reply to Cassandrich • • •Precisely - also as I described.
The one way around that would be storing the secret for the ZKP in a TPM.
Yeah, right, with that you can still run your own proxy and provide the ZKP for someone else.
But it is possible to then also use some forms of remote attestation so this doesn't work. Like, yeah, you can forward the ZKP, but then only you can decrypt the connection and not your "customer", as the decryption key is in your TPM and can't get out.
Despite all that, in worst case you can run a web browser in a VNC session for others to use, with your age claim. Nothing can prevent that - other than the ZKP not being actually ZK.
And that, indeed, is why ZKP aren't gonna happen for this. Even if they're cryptographically ZK, they'll end up signing more than just the age - at which point it's a privacy violation again and also no stronger than merely claiming your age in the first place.
Ed Wiebe
in reply to Cassandrich • • •If you're suggesting every jurisdiction should allow unrestricted access to everything because some jurisdictions are authoritarian then I disagree.
divVerent
in reply to Cassandrich • • •In theory one could do this with a "trusted" third party and blind signatures.
Let every country on the world run a CA for age verification. CA generates a certificate for your age that reveals nothing about your identity.
Present these certificates. Extra cryptography to be used so the certificate cannot be used as an user ID (i.e. each time you present it, the data sent has to be different). E.g. a "zero knowledge protocol". Not even the government that ran the CA should be able to find out which person is presenting their certificate.
All this is solvable, but:
- Nothing stops you from copying someone else's certificate. Even if this were TPM-backed and it were actually secure, nothing stops you from using someone else's computer.
- Websites need to trust _every single country's_ CA. Even if this were feasible, it'd quickly run into issues like "which CA to use for people in Taiwan", and e.g. recognizing one could get you into trouble with the other.
- If only one country hands out certificates for people who haven't reached the
... Show more...In theory one could do this with a "trusted" third party and blind signatures.
Let every country on the world run a CA for age verification. CA generates a certificate for your age that reveals nothing about your identity.
Present these certificates. Extra cryptography to be used so the certificate cannot be used as an user ID (i.e. each time you present it, the data sent has to be different). E.g. a "zero knowledge protocol". Not even the government that ran the CA should be able to find out which person is presenting their certificate.
All this is solvable, but:
- Nothing stops you from copying someone else's certificate. Even if this were TPM-backed and it were actually secure, nothing stops you from using someone else's computer.
- Websites need to trust _every single country's_ CA. Even if this were feasible, it'd quickly run into issues like "which CA to use for people in Taiwan", and e.g. recognizing one could get you into trouble with the other.
- If only one country hands out certificates for people who haven't reached the proper age yet, the entire system breaks down. And some country sure will do that - at least for people paying enough.
- None of the major companies would ever implement a privacy protecting scheme anyway, if they can instead do mass surveillance.
At that point, it basically gains nothing vs my approach of the ban simply implemented client-side and voluntarily. Parents either block social media for their children, or they don't (and supervision necessarily ends once children can afford their own phone and internet connection). I have ideas to simplify that, but solutions for that already exist right now.
divVerent
in reply to Ed Wiebe • • •From what I understand, active verification does necessarily invade privacy.
But active verification is not necessary.
A mere social media ban under age X, if necessary, could simply be passed as a law, making the parents responsible for ensuring their children follow it. There already are existing laws of this kind for other areas of life. And as parents are responsible for supervising their children, they definitively can also be responsible here.
The opposite is true as well - while the child is supervised by their parents, such restrictions should not apply.
To support the ban, I still think it'd be useful to have an (optional at parents' discretion) software solution. Sure one could go all allowlist using e.g. Google Family Link, but I'd prefer if sites specified their purpose (and also some other properties, e.g. the severity of various kinds of NSFW content, potentially even at multiple levels of which the client can then pick one and specify in a header) for such software to use. That's trivial to do, it's just one file to be placed in the we
... Show more...From what I understand, active verification does necessarily invade privacy.
But active verification is not necessary.
A mere social media ban under age X, if necessary, could simply be passed as a law, making the parents responsible for ensuring their children follow it. There already are existing laws of this kind for other areas of life. And as parents are responsible for supervising their children, they definitively can also be responsible here.
The opposite is true as well - while the child is supervised by their parents, such restrictions should not apply.
To support the ban, I still think it'd be useful to have an (optional at parents' discretion) software solution. Sure one could go all allowlist using e.g. Google Family Link, but I'd prefer if sites specified their purpose (and also some other properties, e.g. the severity of various kinds of NSFW content, potentially even at multiple levels of which the client can then pick one and specify in a header) for such software to use. That's trivial to do, it's just one file to be placed in the web server's root and it'll work. Could store it in DNS instead, whatever, don't care.
Furthermore, while at it, we could combine this with a technical solution for COPPA and other regulations that ban tracking and surveilling children online. Namely, revive Do-Not-Track, and have aforementioned software automatically set the header for minors.
But, I hear Big Tech say, then what if adults set the header too?
Then you don't effing track them either.
But... what if everyone sets it?
Then the people have spoken.
Azarilhⓥ
in reply to Em • • •CynAq🤘
in reply to Azarilhⓥ • • •0x4d6165 (Julie)
in reply to Azarilhⓥ • • •Azarilhⓥ
in reply to 0x4d6165 (Julie) • • •Azarilhⓥ
in reply to Azarilhⓥ • • •So silly.
0x4d6165 (Julie)
in reply to Azarilhⓥ • • •Azarilhⓥ
in reply to 0x4d6165 (Julie) • • •@0x4d6165 The methods they use are terrible but it can be done safely, look at EU's proposed app which would make the government check your age, not random private companies. And the government would simply tell the website "yes" or "no", without any identifiable information. So the problem would not persist. It's also open source.
Would you still be against that? If so, why?
0x4d6165 (Julie)
in reply to Azarilhⓥ • • •Azarilhⓥ
in reply to 0x4d6165 (Julie) • • •0x4d6165 (Julie)
in reply to Azarilhⓥ • • •Azarilhⓥ
in reply to 0x4d6165 (Julie) • • •0x4d6165 (Julie)
in reply to Azarilhⓥ • • •Azarilhⓥ
in reply to 0x4d6165 (Julie) • • •0x4d6165 (Julie)
in reply to Azarilhⓥ • • •Azarilhⓥ
in reply to 0x4d6165 (Julie) • • •@0x4d6165 There already are digital ID systems like EU's proposal that are implemented by governments around the world. For instance, Sweden has it ( y'know, one of the most progressive countries in the world ), so does Denmark, Canada, etc. I don't see how they affected negatively anyone in particular.
I don't see "basics of authoritarianism" anywhere in here like USA is doing, where they censor queerness and spread disinformation to control people.
Jonathan Kamens 86 47
in reply to Azarilhⓥ • • •They can even be designed to prevent the authority providing the age verification from knowing what sites it's requested for.
More about this here: newamerica.org/oti/briefs/expl…
I'm not a fan of online age verification, but if governments are going to require it, we should be demanding that it be done this way.
@0x4d6165@transfem.social
Age Verification to Protect Youth Online: Using Zero Knowledge Proofs
New America0x4d6165 (Julie)
in reply to Jonathan Kamens 86 47 • • •0x4d6165 (Julie)
in reply to 0x4d6165 (Julie) • • •Jonathan Kamens 86 47
in reply to 0x4d6165 (Julie) • • •0x4d6165 (Julie)
in reply to Azarilhⓥ • • •you forgot Hungary is in the EU.
damn you really love boots huh
Azarilhⓥ
in reply to 0x4d6165 (Julie) • • •0x4d6165 (Julie)
in reply to Azarilhⓥ • • •0x4d6165 (Julie)
in reply to 0x4d6165 (Julie) • • •Azarilhⓥ
in reply to 0x4d6165 (Julie) • • •@0x4d6165 Just look up "sweden digital id".
We have eID here in Italy too, but it's not used for much.
Reginald
in reply to 0x4d6165 (Julie) • • •Sadly, capitalism is trying to make them the same. They used to look at your ID in clubs. Now they scan them, and no you don't get a disclosure of where that data goes and how it will be used.Is it kept by the club just to figure out if you have been banned or suspended from the club? Do they sell the data? Do they use a 3rd party app and have no idea what happens next?
@Azarilh
Azarilhⓥ
in reply to Reginald • • •Em
in reply to Azarilhⓥ • • •Azarilhⓥ
in reply to Em • • •Em
in reply to Azarilhⓥ • • •Ada
in reply to Em • • •it's kind of (also) a parenting problem?
Having a proper dialogue and clear rules for all technology usage, whether TV, Tablets, Games or Social media isn't a goal to aspire to, it's the minimum bar required for responsible usage.
Paul Sutton (zleap)
in reply to Ada • • •Parents, should also be expected to lead by example.
Serf de Web
in reply to Em • • •Em
in reply to Serf de Web • • •@serfdeweb People need to contact their representatives and complain loudly about it.
These legislations need to be repealed and prevented.
The political class needs to hear that citizens reject surveillance firmly, and the focus should be instead on creating platforms that are less addictive, more privacy-respectful, and safer for everyone, including adults.
The time to fight is now.
Rokosun reshared this.
G1N&T
in reply to Em • • •Ben
in reply to Em • • •It is big tech that's pushing for age verification, not governments. It already knows everything about the adult population, all of the time. But digital IDs will allow it to harvest all of our children's data too, from birth. The digital safety of our children is the responsibility of their parents, not big tech or government. Parents need look up from their own phones occasionally and look deeply at what their children are doing.
Matthew
in reply to Ben • • •Ben
in reply to Matthew • • •Obey
Studiocanoe (Vimeo)Fennek | Commissions OPEN 🦊🐾
in reply to Ben • • •SIGSEGV44
in reply to Em • • •Paul Brzeski
in reply to Em • • •Hear hear!
I'm so tired of everyone like it's normal to upload official identification to every app and website. Without any proper background checks on those services!
This is literally how you get your identity stolen. So the exploitation isn't just happening at the panopticon level, these policies leave us all more vulnerable.
Even people who know better have to comply to function in this society. It's horrendous.
Cyberspice
in reply to Paul Brzeski • • •Newk
in reply to Em • • •Em
in reply to Newk • • •Gerard
in reply to Em • • •Hey parents, your kids are in danger! But don't worry about it. We'll take care of it for you.
All we need to do is just check their ages. It'll be just like getting ID'd in a shop. You remember that don't you? Nothing to worry about.
[quietly]We'll just take a photo of your children and their ID, put them in a database, track their every movement, record who their friends are, what they think, their every hope, dream and aspiration.
[back to normal volume]
So don't you worry, your children are safe with us and our billionaire backers, whoops, I mean with us, just us. We'll take care of everything. You can get back to feeding your own dopamine addictions, we'll claim your children are safer now, and big tech will have their giant, totally not sinister databases of real world identities that surely aren't going to come back to bite us later. Anyway that'll be for a different government to deal with.
N0tSure
in reply to Em • • •John Philip Bell
in reply to Em • • •But keep in mind as well, the proposed technical implementations are key to understanding and explaining how far from 'age verification' the goal is; how far down the surveillance road this all goes.
Age verification is a 'boolean' message to the relying party (or maybe a number of years old), not identity based at all.
If the requirement is 'you have to identify yourself (whispers "for age verification purposes") then the proposal is a requirement to remove privacy, not age verification.
Cassandrich
in reply to John Philip Bell • • •xs4me2
in reply to Em • • •Hans van der Graaf
in reply to Em • • •Yivi - Your digital identity in one app
Yivigrøtlaus fiskegrateng
in reply to Em • • •the FIRST PERSON NETWORK
the FIRST PERSON NETWORKCy
in reply to Em • • •Ben Todd
in reply to Em • • •Em
in reply to Ben Todd • • •Azarilhⓥ
in reply to Em • • •What i hate about age checks in social media is that they say it's to protect children from the toxicity of social media.
How about governments try to actually regulate social media instead of outright banning children? Social media can be a good source of social integration and information ( being a queer child that lives with queerphobe parents, for instance, may only get queer support from people on the internet :/ ). 1/2
Azarilhⓥ
in reply to Azarilhⓥ • • •Em
in reply to Azarilhⓥ • • •Mu
in reply to Em • • •I disagree.
As a society, we have decided to age -gate some things. I, personally, think it's a good thing to slow down the pervasiveness of social media, as I think it's a good thing to slow down most addictive things.
Martin EA7KRC
in reply to Em • • •Luna Lactea
in reply to Em • • •Em
Unknown parent • • •@Azarilh I do not have the time to review and speak about this specific product sadly. But in general, even if the token handed to the application requesting it is fully anonymized, the application collecting the initial data is still a potential attack vector and point of failure.
If it's proprietary, then it entirely relies on blind trust. If it's open source, then it must be fully audited regularly and built and reviewed with independent experts. But even if it was perfectly secure and private, the piece of ID showing the age must be uploaded somehow. Is the whole system secure? Where is this data stored? Does it get fully purged after or is the "deleted" information only flagged as deleted but kept in a database somewhere?
If all identifiable information is fully deleted, then what shows this token is reliably only used by an adult and not shared with a child? Where is this token stored? Can it be sold to others online? People have already done that with the
... Show more...@Azarilh I do not have the time to review and speak about this specific product sadly. But in general, even if the token handed to the application requesting it is fully anonymized, the application collecting the initial data is still a potential attack vector and point of failure.
If it's proprietary, then it entirely relies on blind trust. If it's open source, then it must be fully audited regularly and built and reviewed with independent experts. But even if it was perfectly secure and private, the piece of ID showing the age must be uploaded somehow. Is the whole system secure? Where is this data stored? Does it get fully purged after or is the "deleted" information only flagged as deleted but kept in a database somewhere?
If all identifiable information is fully deleted, then what shows this token is reliably only used by an adult and not shared with a child? Where is this token stored? Can it be sold to others online? People have already done that with the supposedly secure and supposedly private World App. If identifiable information is kept to prevent this, then all the other problems mentioned above remain.
And regardless of all of this, having to upload an official ID, even in the imaginary scenario where we would magically have a perfectly privacy-preserving technology, gatekeeps the use of devices and access to information and communication from many people who, for various reasons, cannot have this official ID. It closes down the internet. We should never agree to that, let alone contribute to facilitating it. More information here: eff.org/issues/age-verificatio…
Age Verification and Age Gating: Resource Hub
Electronic Frontier FoundationJonathan Kamens 86 47
in reply to Em • • •Zero Knowledge Proof age verification doesn't solve all of the problems you mentioned, but it solves most of them, in provably, cryptographically secure ways.
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