c/privacy · by yogthos@lemmy.ml · 169d

Hackers Expose The Massive Surveillance Stack Hiding Inside Your “Age Verification” Check

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/02/25/hackers-expose-the-massive-surveillance-stack-hiding-inside-your-age-verification-check/

441 points · 27 comments · view on lemmy.world

27 Comments

Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world · 53 pts · 169d (2 replies)

In other news: "Duh."

mctoasterson@reddthat.com · 37 pts · 169d (1 reply)

Agree but this does need to be explained to people who aren't in the know. These laws are currently being marketed as "put the power in parents hands" in various states left, right, and center.

Its a good bet when there seems to be widespread bipartisan push for restrictive laws that literally no one asked for, it's gonna be something bad. But you have to explain to mouthbreathers in the electorate why or this shit just gets rammed through.

Zephorah@discuss.online · 14 pts · 169d

There’s no explaining it to the public at large in our forums. We already know. Unless people suddenly watch a couple trusted news sources en masse and those news sources choose to explain, ignorance will rule.

But then that’s the entire point of fracturing information like this. Fake news. Don’t trust science. That’s woke, don’t listen. Etc.

osanna@lemmy.vg · 33 pts · 168d (6 replies)

i want the 90s internet back, when only nerds were on it. it was way better back then.

RoddyStiggs@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 168d

Every time I say this I get downvoted to hell

WhoathereBub@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 168d (2 replies)

Some of those nerds are how we got to where we are today.

Pollo_Jack@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 168d (1 reply)

So you're saying forbid the rich from using the internet?

Thesilverpig@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 167d

I think we should just forbid being rich

HugeNerd@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 168d

the music, the clubs, the clothes, the food

floofloof@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 135d

I'd like to see people rebuild something like that inside i2p or something similar. But with modern browser fingerprinting it's very hard not to be identifiable even there, unless you take precautions most people absolutely won't do.

douglasg14b@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 168d

“Child safety” has simply become the marketing department for a rent-seeking surveillance industry.

Damn ain't that the truth.

Zephorah@discuss.online · 26 pts · 169d

Loyal Moses has been on about this. Apparently the bills require third party cloud storage of the information in addition to an online requirement (for logging in???), and continuous telemetry to in use apps on the desktop environment.

fubarx@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 168d (2 replies)

Was looking at a used car online. Found a site that had option to 'reserve' the car until paperwork was done. Started innocuously with email and phone info, to text updates. Fine. Then it asked to verify info, with scans of driver's license.

Persona.

Noped right out.

ChristchurchAsshole@lemmy.ml · 12 pts · 168d (1 reply)

Sounds like a scam. My friend recently looked for cars online, saw one he thought was good. Had a weird description "only 70,000km on the odometre but air conditioning is broken" like how? Then my friend paid $300 for a "viewing" of the car and the scammer made off with the money. Needless to say my friend isn't very smart and never was! Imagine paying just to see something. This is sadly what mental illness does to a person. Not the first time my friend was scammed either.

EatMyPixelDust@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 168d

I had a friend that stupid. Had.

ThatGuyNamedZeus@feddit.org · 16 pts · 169d

"hiding inside" of it? No no, the whole point is surveillance with full KYC. With the end goal being digital ID and CBDC and social credit scores. What the authorities consider to be correct behavior will earn points and if you so much as breathe a syllable of a question about why they're making you do something you'll lose points and you'll be locked out of things that didn't require an ID to get into before, possibly even access to a grocery store or any other place or service you could get food from

ki9@lemmy.gf4.pw · 15 pts · 169d

Great article! Some writing cannot be accused of AI-generation... Because it's good.

Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 168d (3 replies)

The Epstein class wants to reliably know who is (and therefore isn't) an adult on the internet.

douglasg14b@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 168d (2 replies)

They want to identify the bots from the humans. Partially for advertising.

Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 168d (1 reply)

They want to identify the girls. For grooming.

douglasg14b@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 168d

It was a typo. Fixed.

irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 13 pts · 169d

Blog post by the people who found this: https://vmfunc.re/blog/persona