America is now officially in deep trouble with the supreme court ruling that gives all states the go ahead with age verification. Guess what’s going to happen now? Kiss your freedom goodbye.
Well it would only apply to signaling where you externally interacting with the internet. So non desktop OS where there is no real user is not going to apply. This would be like ones for routers, DNS servers, IOT automation, POS systems, NAS and AV solutions where normally you don’t have a web browser nor an end user that is communicating to the public. So just for interpretation is they want a fingerprint of some kind when interacting with online sites. So anything that has a web browser or communications software like zoom, discord, etc, would have to provide that telemetry. I think we should go with just an online identity scheme and applications that would need it would use that and only is active when those applications are used. That would be a good direction for it since the desktop is separate from the web experience in Linux.
Also keep in mind they are not including older versions and of course our ecosystem is customizable by the end user and just because the distributor has to integrate it doesn’t mean it can be removed by the end user. Just like all the current fingerprinting schemes in Microsoft can be altered by the end user and anyone that is going to abuse it is going to put false information in it to begin with.
1 Like
I don’t care of the “supreme court” which rules on the USA.
The problem is old and widespread, since ever the “authorities”, politicians and lobbists, every big corporation, think of how they can exploit the Internet and control it.
Like they have always exploited and controlled everything else, like the press since ever, the radio stations in the early ‘900, the TV channels later.
More generally, in my own country every adult must have an ID card on her/himself at any given time and provide it when asked. Nowadays the ID card is “electronic” and it must be “activated” to log in all the online public services (like Health Care, Taxes, School, etc). This comes with the idea of coupling the “digital ID” with smarthones so that everything in your life must be dealth with an controlled via a “State app” and you know, smartphones are designed as surveillance devices.
We have a saying “the cows ran away from the barn long ago”, meaning it has already happened, we are just recognizing it now.
Edit: in the EU they are proposing to put some system in place so the authorities can read any encrypted communication over the Internet. Which does not have any “lets protect the minors" excuse, it just means nobody can be “anonymous”, which seems fine in a perfect “free” society but can be scaring when you fear the authorities or even when the society is “polarized” and you risk violence for expressing opinions.