Eric Schultz1d ago

A small set of people are merging changes to various Linux components to make sure every application knows your birth date.

This is being done rapidly by people with questionable justifications and being merged with no youth and few marginalized people involved.

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/accountsservice/accountsservice/-/merge_requests/176#0b07c0cc4d49be119f65cdb2037440f56eed647a

user: Add BirthDate with polkit-gated GetBirthDate and SetBirthDate methods (!176) · Merge requests · accountsservice / accountsservice · GitLab

Summary Add a BirthDate field to the user account interface. For non-homed users, the value is stored...

GitLab
Show threadArtemysia1d ago
@wwahammy why the fuck are people complying in advance? Where is the commitment to software freedom?
Show threadJustin Fitzsimmons1d ago

@artemis @wwahammy this isn't complying in advance, it's complying with the law. Which passed unanimously through the California assembly and senate and was signed into law by Gavin Newsom in 2025. It's not going to be repealed.

Open source projects do not have the type of budget that allows them to merely ignore the law and shrug off fines and legal fees.

Show threadArtemysia1d ago
@smn @wwahammy I don't understand how California gets to mandate this. People can download software from wherever they want. Host your project outside of California.
Show threadKnut 🏳️‍🌈 🇳🇴🧸1d ago
@artemis @smn @wwahammy This whole OS age thing is beyond stupid. Do these politicians even know what an OS is for? This seems more like an issue to take to app developers like Grindr (which unless they have a pic and look 40 years old, we're not talking. Plenty of children on there). I know for me, who is highly allergic to kids, and very untrusting, verification on those sort of things would be a good thing. But not just so I can login to my Mac and use Logic and Xcode
Show threadMuss das sein.1d ago

@praetor @artemis @smn @wwahammy it’s not beyond stupid. It’s beyond evil.

This is not about kids. This is about total surveillance.

Show threadEric Schultz1d ago

@jnfrd @praetor @artemis @smn it's definitely evil but I also think it's pretty stupid. These legislators basically created a mess with an impractical bill which literally every one them thought was cut and dry.

The result is the same, of course.

Show threadMuss das sein.
@wwahammy @praetor @artemis @smn having unclear laws may sound stupid but they are the perfect weapon for the authorities. They can be used as a lever to destroy people and organizations opposing governments. Even if you win in court, you’ll have to waste huge resources to defend yourself, resources most people and organizations do not have.
Mar 21 at 4:43amWeb
Show threadKnut 🏳️‍🌈 🇳🇴🧸1d ago
@jnfrd @wwahammy @artemis @smn I think there is a difference between nebulous and ridiculous. You can enforce nebulous. You can't enforce ridiculous.
Show threadMuss das sein.1d ago
@praetor @wwahammy @artemis @smn of course you can enforce ridiculous. I hope I am wrong but we’ll see a lot of ridiculous things conning at us.
Show threadKnut 🏳️‍🌈 🇳🇴🧸1d ago
@jnfrd @wwahammy @artemis @smn remember. Nebulous is transparent. You can't see through it. Ridiculous is opaque. It's pretty damned obvious when something is ridiculous. And we see ridiculous in all its opaque glory daily, but we know it's ridiculous. Any rational human being is not taking Trump seriously. Is Europe? Fuck, Iran isn't. Ridiculous reduces the number of people with wool over their eyes and buys into it. Nebulous is a fart. Ridiculous is a wall.
Show threadEric Schultz1d ago
@jnfrd @praetor @artemis @smn the enforcers don't have unlimited resources. The AG of California isn't going to sue random distros because there's no benefit to doing so.