I’m just here to say KOSA is coming and I’ve decided that this will be the hill I die on. I’m not scanning biometrics or uploading my id. I don’t give a single shit what I get locked out of. I know this is not strictly google related but very likely many people will be pissed when they find out they need to age verify just to use a Google account. I’d like to here other people’s plans for mitigation.
The KOSA act, looking at it, is better than a lot of the other iterations of the act. It doesn’t ban people who don’t identify themselves from social media entirely, but gives them an opt-out for the worst features (autoplay, algorithmic recommendations, etc.).
Though if I had my way, these features would be forced off for those who don’t prove their age, and restrictions on adult content would be left to parental controls instead of government ID. But still the KOSA act is far better than what some other countries have implemented (looking at you UK, don’t ban people from fucking wikipedia).
KOSA has been heavily criticized by members of the “Don’t Delete Art” (DDA) movement, including American Civil Liberties Union, the National Coalition Against Censorship, Fight for the Future, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, libertarian magazine Reason, and anti-abortion group Students for Life.
That presents a good websearch lists, if you want to know how this will negatively affect the internet and the lives of children.
There’s a petition you can sign here.
I’ve decided that this will be the hill I die on. I’m not scanning biometrics or uploading my id.
Same
Context for anyone else who’s not from the US:
Thanks for posting a reference.
The bill aims to … disable “addicting” design features to minors.
Why only to minors? Don’t all people deserve protections from knowingly addictive things?
This has never been about the kids. It’s about slowly eroding privacy for all of us.
Others can get the opt out simply by not identifying themselves. Though if it were up to me, I’d require ID to get algorithmic recommendations.
I don’t know if it’s a good idea to tie our identities to the algorithms we train on our likes, dislikes, and personality. I’d rather it be mandated that ID can’t be attached to something like that.
Why not both. Require ID for algorithmic recommendations and then ban tying your ID to it.
But realistically speaking Google already knows the identity of every single user who isn’t actively trying to hide their identity. So the privacy implications are negligible.
Why not both. Require ID for algorithmic recommendations and then ban tying your ID to it.
If we could trust companies to not make the connection, maybe, but they 100% would.
If a website requires me to upload an ID, then I’m going to be finding a new website, because I’m not doing that.
Most will just fall inline with this intrusive corporate cash grab. There will also come a fresh wave of interest in privacy from those who are gaining the sense that this move isn’t what it’s being framed as. It’s a good opportunity to promote the concepts and practices behind digital sovereignty.
yes it is. and they lobbied for this to happen in the entire world while we barely tried to stop it.
i don’t know what’s coming for society next, but it’s not good at all. this will be a qualitative jump, silicon valley & friends WILL be using their outsized influence over the internet to their advantage at the expense of everyone else, almost literally. saying it’s 1984 went out of fashion but it’s slowly but surely becoming reality.
make no mistake, they are coming after the people who try to opt out too and looking around it seems everyone else that cares is just as lost on what do we do now.
I don’t know what KOSA is, but I can guess. And I will also die on that hill. No way I would give biometrics or my I’d.
In the last 12 months I received 4 mails from 4 companies being sooooooo sorry that they had a databreach and my personal info got stolen. And they didn’t even attach a fucking 5 moneyz-coupon. Not that this would have changed anything…
It really depends on what ends up being required. I’m already pretty much degoogled. I already can’t watch age restricted videos on youtube and if it changes to require ID for any videos then I just won’t watch youtube anymore. If ID requirements spread further to things like domains, email providers, etc then I may not have a choice because of my work situation. It could be that I have to find a new employer or career and rework my personal services to be hosted locally. From a technical perspective it’s possible but it could be really uncomfortable.
that’s if all the hardware cost collusion don’t end up eventually squeezing us out of hosting locally.
true, although I don’t need to scale and I currently have hardware suitable for my needs that is quite old already.
me too, but hardware doesn’t last forever.
Yeah, I’m on the same painful boat right now.
I’ll spend more time on Tor if it comes to that.
