this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
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Age checks could turn internet into an ID checkpoint and would kill anonymity, Proton CEO says (proton.me)
submitted 11 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) by Deep@mander.xyz to c/technology@lemmy.world
169 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Online threats to children are real, but the headlong pursuit of age verification that we’re seeing around the world is unacceptable in its approach and far too broad in scope — and we simply can’t afford to get this wrong.

To be clear, parents’ concerns are valid and sincere. Few people would argue that kids should have unfettered access to adult material, to self-harm how-tos, to social media platforms that manipulate them and expose them to abuse.

But it’s the very depth of those worries that is being cynically exploited. Age verification as is currently being proposed in country after country would mean the death of anonymity online.

And we know exactly who stands to gain: The same tech giants who built the privacy nightmare that the internet is today.

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[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 8 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

They have to comply with court orders. You can't run a business and ignore the government and legal system; they will throw the book at you.

Don't use proton to do anything that could be considered a crime in the EU.

[–] XLE@piefed.social 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

This sounds like something you should take up with Proton's marketing: "Outside of US and EU jurisdiction"

[–] Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Which is both correct, but makes them still subject to swiss law, and swiss law enforcement will comply with foreign requests - although it took some serious misrepresenting by the French by citing terrorism laws to get the swiss courts to sign the warrant, forcing proton to log the next IP the user used to log in. Had the user used protons own VPN or TOR to login, the resulting data would have been useless.

[–] XLE@piefed.social 1 points 3 hours ago

If Proton users try to sign up with Tor, they are asked for an email address, which Proton stores and turns over to law enforcement. Your complaint is legitimate, but you are speaking to the choir here, they need to know. At bare minimum, so they don't get in legal trouble for misrepresentation (although I hope people here presume they have a higher ethical standard than legality)