Mastodawn

Okay, obviously Persona is terribad. There is a real problem to address here though: how are organizations supposed to perform reasonable identity verification at a distance? Sophisticated impersonation attacks hit customer support lines every day. We need a reasonable defense against this.

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Taggart Feb 27

I'm asking because I honestly can't imagine a solution to this particular problem that is both:

User friendly
Acceptable to privacy advocates

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Soatok Dreamseeker Feb 27

@mttaggart I wrote about the cryptography needed to build a solution a while ago: https://soatok.blog/2025/07/31/age-verification-doesnt-need-to-be-a-privacy-footgun/

The usability on top of the cryptography is a whole 'nother can of worms, though.

And even if you use good cryptography for privacy, if your endpoint leaks your credentials anyway, you still put users at risk.

Further, even if a good solution existed, the ways the laws and regulations that are being written about these verification requirements are often shitty on top of all that.

There's not an easy answer. But there should be.

Age Verification Doesn’t Need to Be a Privacy Footgun - Dhole Moments

“Won’t someone think of the poor children?” they say, clutching their pearls as they enact another stupid law that will harm the privacy of every adult on Earth and create Prior R…

Dhole Moments

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Richard

@soatok @mttaggart I think Yivi actually made this? (Disclaimer: I know just enough crypto to know I have no idea if they got it right)

But meh, if the goal really was to protect children, age verification wouldn’t be on top of the list.

Yivi - Your digital identity in one app

Yivi is de privacyvriendelijke ID-app waarmee je veilig inlogt, gegevens deelt en bewijst wie je bent. Wachtwoordloos, veilig en altijd in controle. All You. All yours.

Yivi