I’m asking because I just had to verify my age thanks to YouTube requiring me to watch a video that was age restricted.
you just did your part to normalize it.
You have absolutely f*cked yourself over by doing that. It’s not a matter of if that ID you just gave them is going to get leaked, it’s a matter of when and by who. These ID verification companies are infamous for mishandling this kind of information and are huge easy targets for hackers.
I would highly recommend preparing for the worst now before it happens so when your ID does get compromised you already have things handled.
Do not give these companies your ID unless you really like the idea of someone POS using it to commit crimes on your behalf.
Focked?
Feked
No no no fucking NO!
Do NOT accept this! Do NOT normalize this! DO NOT COMPLY!
Did you really need to see that youtube video? If it was that important, then find another way. Lie. Get a downloader. Get creative. Or walk away, since it was probably not that important
DON’T SELL YOUR IDENTITY FOR CONVENIENCE. DON’T WILLINGLY FEED THE SPIES MORE INFORMATION.
And when they require age verification of the o/s then what?
Take back control of your OS. Use a different OS if you need to.
Yup. I’m gonna learn programming if I have to to remove it from my distro if necessary
The law is being written so ALL operating systems will be covered. Are you suggesting I write my own os?
Tell me you’re American without telling me you’re American.
Are you suggesting that all countries on earth will adopt this law, or that all developers in all countries will comply with the law of one country?
Will all previous versions of all OSs be deleted? Will all OSs become closed source so you can’t just remove the age verification part?
Will you be the only person on earth who is willing to break an unethical law to have basic privacy?
If yes to all the above, then you may need to start learning how to program.
all countries on earth will adopt this law
Sure seems like its going that way. Seems like basically everywhere shouted “think of the children!” All at once.
Inb4 getting shouted at for assuming “The West” includes everyone on Earth
Almost all western type countries are going this route. Canada is headed there. The US. The UK. Just to name a few
Afaik there is already an exception being made now to exclude Open Source operating systems from this requirement, so seems like anything Linux-based would be fine for now
It damn well better remain an exception. I help manage a few hundred Linux systems in AWS for my employer. We patch those systems on a quarterly basis, which in some cases means building up a whole new instance from scratch. I shudder to think what it would mean if we somehow had to prove our age for each one of these systems. And whose age/identity would it be? Our CEO? Me? My boss?
For Now there’s an exception in some states in the US. The one that is going through the federal government in the US does not have that exception for what I understand… they are also trying to make a federal law in the United States that says when you activate a new cell phone, you will have to do age verification on it. it will start as just a simple showing government issued ID. But every law gets bigger. So then they’ll just add in some sort of face scan on it.
Then you use another. Adapt
As I said to another comment, the law is being wrote Where it will cover all operating systems. So exactly which one would I use if they’re all covered?
Linux is open source. There is already many projects that refuse to add it
That’s a nice sentiment. Wait until the United States government says we don’t care if it’s open source or not , you’re going to comply. Which from what I understand is exactly what they’re pushing for.
… I just had to verify my age …
No you did not. You chose to do so.
I have not used WhatsApp in 10+ years, Windows in 4+ years, Google services in 2+ years.
It is a choice, stop lying to yourself about having to accept things.
I don’t use services that ask me to prove my age, beyond a drop-down date picker, in which case I was born in 1969.
I always pick Jan 1 1970
An epoch baby!
On April 20, right ?
Are you giving up your privacy to a profit driven corporation who absolutely can’t be trusted with it, just because you want to watch a video that has no real point other than entertainment?
That’s what normalisation of age verification looks like…
For YouTube, use a VPN that terminates in Albania. Like magic, no more forced sign ins, or ads, or age checks.
Why is that?
Their laws don’t allow online advertising (or something, I’m not clear on the actual details).
No ads on YouTube, Spotify can still play ads for premium (but they don’t make any money from them), and you can play mobile games without having to deal with ads too.
wouldnt using an adblocker or something like invidious be easier?
Doesn’t get rid off age verifications.
im pretty sure you dont need to verify your age when using invidious
you could also just fake it
Age restricted videos didn’t play through Invidious, and in my case I need to provide a selfie with my passport for age verification so I’m not sure how to fake that.
Use Newpipe if your are on mobile, it is from the fdroid store. No need to login to watch YouTube
Age restriction still applies and NewPipe can no longer circumvent it. Restricted videos get flagged as such and will not play.
Hmm, I haven’t encountered that yet. Does the anonymous google login via stuff like the aurora store and microg still work?
I used Aurora for a while and noticed several applications were unavailble, returned download error or if installed would invoke a google account login to run.
Not for me it fucking hasn’t.
And won’t.
I haven’t age verified anything and I don’t plan to. It’s only normal when you normalize it. If something will no longer allow me access without verifying my age, I will either find a way around it or I will no longer use that thing. If Youtube is not going to let me watch age restricted videos, so what? I will not watch age restricted videos on Youtube. I will instead use an addon to find them on odysee or peertube instead if possible, or I’ll just live my life accepting that video probably wasn’t one I really needed that contained the only key to living a happy life. It’s not that important, certainly not important enough to verify my age to the surveillance police.
If they try to make me age verify my home internet connection, well then I’m gonna have to get real creative, sure, but rest assured I will (with the help of the rest of the privacy-oriented community) find ways to obfuscate the fuck out of all traffic in and out of my network so thoroughly it won’t even matter if they know who owns my internet connection because it won’t even be relevant anymore. VPN everything. Become an open relay. Join the I2P project. Embrace mesh networking. Fuck them, they can’t stop us all.
I haven’t been able to watch age restricted videos on YouTube for many years since I closed my google account.
I’m used to not being able to watch or go anywhere I want.
I haven’t tried for age restricted, but ytdlp works for those “sign in to verify you’re not a bot” prompts. Might be worth checking out if it works for those too. Or just you know, fuck yt off.
Haven’t interacted with anything forcing it yet.
It only becomes normalized if we continue using those services… If these co’s saw a meaurable reduction in engagement after implenting these rules they would back peddle. The almighty dollar is king afterall.
Not for me, I don’t participate in any service that requires it
Try using GrayJay or some other frontend to avoid restrictions. The more resistance, the more clear it becomes that the people don’t want this until politicians are forced to compromise (if they don’t want to get hanged)
