Android users will soon have to fork over all of their information if they want to download apps in the Google Play store.
It has never been a better time to be a busy body with way too much time wanting to force morality onto others. After all, governments are increasingly anti-free speech, anti-science, and pro senseless these days. Age verification is, of course, a shining example of this. Age verification is, of course, pushed by lawmakers who base their arguments on moral panics, misinformation, conspiracy theories, lies, and snake oil. In fact, they even have whole disinformation networks to push these lies.
One of the biggest and most obvious lies is that age verification is about stopping minors from viewing explicit material. To be clear, it never was about this at all, but rather, trying to find a moral thin wedge to police legally protected speech online. The lie was exposed a long time ago when language about the percentage of material on websites needing to be adult to be required to have age verification began being dropped from various legislative efforts. This was replaced by the fig leaf that all major websites that could have explicit material must implement age verification (which really means just everyone). In fact, the scope expanded in things like the UKs Online Safety Act which includes “harmful” content, whatever the hell that actually means.
Of course, as anyone who is even half paying attention to all of this knows, these laws negatively impact everyone. This thanks to companies that claim to no house people’s personal information, but quietly hoard that information for both fun and profit – sometimes without legal consequence as far as the legislation is concerned (lawsuits are always an open possibility, but by then, the damage is already done). For the reckless age verification supporters with wet dreams of a roaming thought police, none of the consequences really matter. The more places that implement the surveillance technology, the better.
Recently, Google began rolling out age verification on their Google Play app store. From Android Authority:
Google has apparently started rolling out its new Play Store age verification system, similar to the process it recently introduced on YouTube.
The rollout of the new Play Store age verification process was spotted by Artem Russakovskii, who has shared screenshots of the verification prompt in a post on X.
The new system is designed to require users to verify their age before downloading certain apps. Age verification can be completed using one of several methods, including:
- Uploading a government-issued ID.
- Taking a selfie.
- Using a credit card (no transaction fee, and any temporary charge is refunded).
- Email verification through a third-party age-estimation provider such as Verifymy.io.
The rollout of the Play Store’s new age verification system might happen gradually and could vary by region. Users in some regions may not have to verify their age at all. The verification options could also vary by region. For example, the Verifymy.io method isn’t yet available in my country.
The lack of any real privacy laws outside of Europe has long been a boon for criminals everywhere who have long experienced a golden age of stolen identities and an endless supply of massive cache’s of people’s personal information ripe for abuse. Developments like this are no doubt having a similar impact with criminals popping the champagne at new opportunities to steal people’s identities. They know even more information is going to get stored in insecure locations, meaning all they have to do is just take it and make a mountain of money out of the deal. After all, this has already happened with where government IDs were exposed to criminals. These developments will no doubt ensure that this won’t be the last time this happens.
Drew Wilson on Mastodon, Twitter and Facebook.
Discover more from Freezenet.ca
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
