Comment on System76 on Age Verification Laws
PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks agoThis is a compelling argument, but do you think its really a significant attack vector? Its already illegal to share or leak, even unintentionally this data, and from my understanding, if you chose to set your age to a lower bracket via this process, companies sharing (also collecting? Currently unclear on this.) this data would also break CCPA and possibly COPPA, and from my understanding, the companies are required to provide additional data privacy measures under California Civil Code.
Yes, these laws will be broken, but will it be on a significant enough scale, and with reliable enough information to be worth-while? Like, since this bans the use of data from those who set their age low, wouldn’t this likely reduce the data collection pool overall, not to mention inventiving adults to poison this data. For those who do illegally collect this data anyway, is it that much of an advantage compared to just asking the user’s age upon reaching the site as most sites currently do? Beyond that, when these sites operating illegally do leak their data, will that data be a realistic attack vector? Like I said to another commenter, collating data in this way seems extremely impractical and unreliable for predators. Wouldn’t those who want to seek out children just go to existing spaces where they can connect directly like Roblox or Discord?
makeitwonderful@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Honestly, I re-read the legislation, and I while I’m still not convinced something like this is a bad idea, all the specifics are.
Like, ultimately, its a use-set flag, stored locally, and would provide users more choice in content filtering.
You’re right, and the design of this law basically ensures that. I was thinking of it being implemented (at least in user-friendly UI) as a dropdown showing the four provided age brackets. Instead, it is required to be a numeric or date of birth input, seemingly without allowing a default value, which means users are more likely to enter accurate data. Similarly, stored age information isn’t required to use the brackets provided. This means that a lazy or immoral developer will use the exact age, rather than abstracting it as the law suggests. I had misinterpreted 1798.500. (b) and thought that the abstraction of age data as suggested was required.
If something like this is to be implemented, it needs to use a more abstracted format (ideally with a default value), and if its going to be implemented into law, it should be a better system of content filter than simply using an age-based metric.