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 17 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) by Deep@mander.xyz to c/technology@lemmy.world
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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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[–] MortUS@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 43 minutes ago)

All this does is make people’s data more valuable, and create a valuable repository of people’s personal information.

This happens regardless, there's no way around the security problem of needing to verify someone's identify. On a National level, on a State level, on a Country level. We have to, as a society, verify someones identity for security purposes - there's no getting around that. Decentralization doesn't solve the security problem here.

Both by governments looking for dissenters

They can already do this.

by advertisers, who will use that data to squeeze every last cent out of you via Surveillance pricing.

This is a separate issue, and they're already doing this. We already know, as a lemmy users, we need better laws for data protection and tech in general (online and physical).

What do you think will happen when the nations collective web browsing information inevitably gets leaked and anyone can look up anyone’s name, see their license and what they’ve watched on YouTube or elsewhere? It’s creepy tech, not protection.

This is a separate issue, and they're already doing this. Everything you purchase is available online through data brokers. People are connected to a lot of stuff, and all that data is amassed through brokers. What do you think predictive models were made for?

The solution to these ‘social problems’ is funding education.

You're 100% right, but Education is a long-term solution already facing an uphill battle. If we were more progressive as a society, then we would have insulated our National Security 10+ years ago, but we're not, and technology moves fast.

But that doesn’t work quickly, costs money, and various groups of people in power oppose widespread critical thinking. Making sure people aren’t exhausted because they can’t afford anything and are always working would help too, but it’s not ‘sexy’ to uplift people’s standard of living I guess

No rebuttals on the rest, 100% correct.

The number of uneducated, the absolutely absurd amount of data that is already available, and the growing predictive model tech are all reasons why each Nation needs to figure out their tech security, some way, some how - the sooner the better. OS level security is one of the better options. National Firewall, like China, would be the next best bet.