kravietz 🦇Since there’s a lot of discussion about age verification on various platforms - like Ubuntu’s Canonical[^1] I just wanted to highlight one that is the least lame and the most privacy-preserving in existence currently: Mobile Driver’s License (mDL) aka ISO/IEC 18013-5[^2]
Just don’t get misled by its rather confusing name and overwhelming amount of references standards, I’ve been digging through them for the last few weeks only to realise how much I have to catch up since I’ve last read eIDAS regulation in full around 2010. I plan a longer write-up on that subject but that’s going to take time.
The core idea of mDL is very simple and based on an old EU Qualified Electronic Signature (1999) concept of certificate of attributes:
Most importantly, mDL allows for attributes that are simple boolean statements, such as “18+” and because attribute certificates don’t have to be attached to an identity, you can approve a simple website’s request “is this user 18+” without submitting your face, payment card or full personal details including date of birth. All information the website gets is cryptographically verifiable information “yes, this user is 18+” and nothing more.
There’s tons of EU regulation currently built around these standards, which are generally centered around the concept of EU Digital Wallet. The core ideas behind it is privacy protection, user control and revealing only as much details as necessary on need-to-know basis.
Because we had many “grassroots” campaigns in the past conveniently sponsored by US big tech companies to oppose EU regulations that impact their business models, I would expect the same to be unrolled against EU Digital Wallet at some points. Just remember, from their business point of view it’s much better for Google or Meta to get your face or payment card details rather than frustrating “yes, this user is 18+” attribute they can’t use for their behavioural tracking network.
[^1]: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2026-March/043534.html?ref=itsfoss.com
Yoshi
Denny Vrandečić