Aaron Toponce ⚛️3d ago

Systemd merged age verification to comply with California state law.

If you want to enter a birth date, I recommend "Friday, 13 December 1901 20:45:52".

I like this for a few reasons:

1. This is the earliest date possible for a 32 bit datetime integer in C.
2. It's malicious compliance.
3. It's obviously faked.

https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/40954

#linux

userdb: add birthDate field to JSON user records by dylanmtaylor · Pull Request #40954 · systemd/systemd

Stores the user's birth date for age verification, as required by recent laws in California (AB-1043), Colorado (SB26-051), Brazil (Lei 15.211/2025), etc. The xdg-desktop-portal project is addi...

GitHub
Show threadJordan Petridis3d ago

@atoponce Being able to store the birthday of the user is useful metadata for the system to have in general. This is something that is needed to have regardless of any regulations. There are already other PII stored. Additionally there isn't any "Verification" mechanism in the PR you linked or proposed at all.

Jesus Christ read before spreading further misinformation. You also clearly haven't read the California legislation you are so worried about.

Show threadTravis E. Jones3d ago

@alatiera @atoponce

Honest question from a non-programmer (although I did learn BASIC in high school and Pascal in college), how would the age of the user be useful metadata for the operating system? The reason I ask is that I view the OS as serving my interests as a user, and I can't think of a way I would benefit from having my birthdate stored by systemd. Thanks!

Show threadAaron Toponce ⚛️3d ago

@travisejones @alatiera It's likely in place so future software that requires a birthday from the system can retrieve it.

For example, some mature video game with adult elements could ask systemd for the birthday before letting the user play the game.

AFAIK, there are no hooks in place that verify that the supplied birth date matches their birth certificate, government issued ID, etc. So there's nothing stopping you from lying about your age to get around the video game rating.

Show threadMiakoda 3d ago
@atoponce @travisejones @alatiera "letting the user".
Right there is the entire fucking problem. I bought the machine. I am the owner. There is no "let" in this situation. There is only "fuck you, computer does whatever the fuck I tell it to do!". Anyone sticking "let" in to my computer can go fuck all the way off!
Show threadferricoxide
@hellomiakoda @atoponce @travisejones @alatiera

You're missing the overarching trend of "you will own nothing" that our techbroligarchy overlords are trying to shove down everyone's throats (in the guise of "won't somebody think of the children!").
Mar 19 at 8:07pmWeb
Show threadMiakoda 3d ago
@ferricoxide @atoponce @alatiera @travisejones I'm not missing it, I'm actively resisting it. That's why I have Linux computers in the first place.
Show threadferricoxide3d ago
@hellomiakoda @atoponce @alatiera @travisejones

Between finding time/energy to do taxes, upgrade my VPS's OS I haven't had time to even think about dealing with re-imaging my laptop to a Linux distro.

…though, really, I'd probably rather re-image it to a hypervisor and then just run a Linux VM for personal stuff and Windows for work stuff.