Chuck DarwinMar 14

We’ve been saying this for years now, and we’re going to keep saying it until the message finally sinks in:

mandatory age verification creates massive, centralized honeypots of sensitive biometric data that will inevitably be breached.

Every single time.

And every single time it happens,
the politicians who mandated these systems and the companies that built them act shocked—shocked!

—that collecting enormous databases of government IDs, facial scans, and biometric data from millions of people turns out to be a security nightmare

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

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

We’ve been saying this for years now, and we’re going to keep saying it until the message finally sinks in: mandatory age verification creates massive, centralized honeypots of sensitiv…

Techdirt
Show threadBrooks SmithMar 15

In the world of centralised databases of sensitive data on the internet, I'm much more comfortable with a democratically-elected government holding it than with Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and the other tech oligarchs.

Centralised databases of sensitive data, including biometrics, will (and do) exist. Unless we want to go 100% off-grid, we're not going to stop them. What we can do is put them in the hands of the people we distrust the least and whom we can hold accountable for breaches.

I'm sure there are plenty of folks on here who disagree with me, but I personally distrust elected governments less than I distrust tech bros.

Show threadAaron
@smithb Sure, it's less bad. But the march of entropy means that sooner or later, that democracy you trust more can turn into that oligarchy you trust less. We are living through what may be the last moments of such an event here in the US.
Mar 15 at 8:18pmWeb
Show threadAaron6d ago
@smithb I guess my point is, push as far in the other direction as possible, so when things backslide you're still in safe territory.