Travis E. JonesHonest 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!
Aaron Toponce ⚛️
@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.
Alexander The 1st@atoponce @travisejones @alatiera There is a fatal flaw to this "Future software that requires a birthday from the system can retrieve it.", and it's that computers can be shared.
So just because I provided my birth certificate and birth date to the system (Even if we presume it does get checked), nothing prevents my niece or nephew from logging onto my computer and getting access to the same content I can, because now, as far as the computer is concerned, I am authenticated.
@atoponce @travisejones @alatiera (Replace me with my sister and/or brother-in-law, and you've got the more plausible outcome for the same situation, but the point stands either way.)
Stevez@AT1ST @atoponce @travisejones @alatiera Walit - the age definition is not implemented as per accout feature? That would be totally silly on a multiuser os... 🤔
@theron29 @atoponce @travisejones @alatiera I think it is per-account, but...what prevents some kid from learning their parents' login credentials? Or for them to not have an account at a young age, and interact with it through their parents' accounts? (See, for example, my niece learning the Pin code on her parents' iPad, hypothetically.).
Though there's also this in the document:
"birthDate is excluded from user_record_self_modifiable_fields(), so only
administrators can set or change it via homectl. The field remains in the
regular (non-privileged) JSON section, keeping it readable by the user and
applications (e.g. xdg-desktop-portal)."
So cool - `sudo homectl birthDate 1901-01-01`, and done. :p
@AT1ST @atoponce @travisejones @alatiera "what prevents some kid from learning their parents' login credentials?"
1. The parent, or a relative of course! It is, and must be, their responsibility, and nobody elses...
2. Something similar - a parental mode - works in Android world for years... Limitting child's access to apps, timed app or consumption - it iss all there for years, and works without issues... nobody gives a fart... Why is this possibility on Linux such a bi issue suddenly? 🤔
@theron29 @atoponce @travisejones @alatiera It's not just a big issue on Linux - it's an issue for Windows and MacOS too.
The big issue is that we're forcing people to provide additional PII data to the OS...for something that has a *dead easy* workaround. Instead of just recognizing that previous attempts to enforce age gating have been routinely found to have implementation gaps.
And as for 1.) and 2.), that presumes the parent has more technical knowledge of their system than the kid does; that is usually not the case.
@theron29 @atoponce @travisejones @alatiera It is worth remembering as well that in the past there was that fad of seeing that someone had not locked or logged out their computer and then posting, as that person, that they had not locked or logged out their account.