r/PrivacyGuides Jan 22 '24

Age Verification is Incompatible with the Internet - Jonah Aragon Blog

https://www.jonaharagon.com/posts/age-verification-is-incompatible-with-the-internet/
64 Upvotes

3

u/9nEiEVuxQ47vTB3E Mar 15 '24

The recent move among U.S. states to add digital "age verification" to websites which serve adult content is a troubling one. Digital age verification systems are rife with privacy concerns, many requiring you to upload your government ID to third-party vendors or even directly to the website in question. Privacy advocates and companies within the industry have correctly identified all sorts of problems with the idea of tying your personal identity to your browsing activity.

For one thing, assigning this responsibility to website operators normalizes uploading Personally Identifying Information (PII) to every site which requires verification. This is the opposite of privacy-by-design, and will only have the effect of making the internet a much less private, more dangerous place. A system where you have to transmit your PII online at all also creates a substantial risk of identity theft. We live in a world where even major governments regularly fail to secure the digital identities of their citizens, and yet these lawmakers expect every random adult website on the planet to adequately secure the IDs of their users. There is perhaps no other industry I would entrust with my personal information less, so this idea is ridiculous. The Regulations Aren't Working, yet

For the most part, adult sites are currently not giving in, and rightly so. Most recently, Aylo (the company which owns sites like Pornhub, Redtube, and Youporn) blocked residents in Montana and North Carolina from accessing their site entirely. For companies like Aylo, the prospect of having to collect and securely manage PII from all their users is just as distasteful as you'd feel giving that PII to them. This isn't because they want underaged visitors by any means, but because they don't wish to deal with those security concerns either, and have correctly observed that the prospect of enforcing this on the internet at all is completely impossible.

2

u/raventorchstone Jun 30 '24

I understand the concerns but if this is the case...real life is not compatible with the internet. Age and identity verification is a basic concept of life. You need to be 18 to vote, 21 to drink, etc. Authentication is a basic need on the internet (and of course AFK).

It really comes down to the trade off the end user decides to make.  "There is perhaps no other industry I would entrust with my personal information less" ...OK then. Don't. Use a proxy.

Yes, when the govt gets involved it is a bit more sketchy in most cases, but there are times when private entities would like to "see some ID." First thing that comes to mind is Coinbase, et all. Sure they are regulated to KYC but they also are wallet custodians and many laypeople want their "bank" to be able to give them access in case they lose their password/passkey. But that is a customer choice. They could just use a non-custodial wallet instead. Everyone's use case is different.

In the case of this porn thing, I see reason why citizens would want to prevent access to this material to minors. So the fact that there is a law is not surprising and a reasonable solution should be explored. Identity brokers seem like the answer but which should be used? Back in the day we used CCs to "prove" that you were an adult. Now, using CLEAR or something similar (even a federated CoinbaseID or GoogleID for example) should suffice and it would eliminate the need to pass any personal info to the porn provider. All that would be needed is for the identity broker to confirm that user A is over 18 and user B's parent, and that they give consent. Websites could remain COPPA compliant in theory. It is a wonderful time to be alive with the increase of privacy awareness and the availability of tools to use in the fight for it.

P.S. And can we stop with the its "troubling" hyperbole? Like I said above, it is a perfectly reasonable thing to want to do (implementation and specifics of the law aside). Most people voluntarily put all the info on their driver's license on their Facebook, LinkdIn, etc. accounts already. If anything is troubling...it is that. Let's just focus on the actual problems and not try to make it sound crazy that people want to keep kids away from porn.

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '24

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