the only time you should hand over your ID like a passport or stuff like that is when you absolutely need to. for example like crossing international borders, opening or operating a bank account or applying for a driver's license. those are all valid cases and highly regulated.

but this for profit corporation will just use your data to target you for profit. they even sold mobile phone numbers used for 2FA to advertisers. can you really trust them now with this nonsense?

@nixCraft I should be able to walk to a post office or bank where, after presenting an ID card, they give me a single use token I can use to prove to an organization I'm a real human — or that I'm of a certain age, etc.

I think this should work well enough even if no personal information is stored on that token.

I would happily join a Mastodon server that only accepts authentic users...kind of like the "blue checkmark" of Twitter but democratized so it's not just celebrities.