Bluesky will be age-gating content for UK users. It’s your privacy that pays.

The UK Online Safety Act has unleashed an unregulated market in age verification.

That we have to do these intrusive checks with countless providers for different platforms is dangerous.

https://www.theverge.com/news/704468/bluesky-age-verification-uk-online-safety-act

#onlinesafetyact #ageverification #ageassurance #privacy #dataprotection #data #biometrics #onlinesafety #ukpolitics #ukpol #bluesky

New[ish] Privacy Guides article 🪪🚫
by me:

Age verification laws have been multiplying in recent years. This is extremely bad news for your privacy rights.

While framed as a measure to
protect the children, collecting more data on every users of the internet endangers everyone, including the children.

This isn't a protective measure,
this is authoritarian policies normalizing mass surveillance and silencing dissidents.

It could very much become
the end of pseudonymity online,
if we do not push back against it.

https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/05/06/age-verification-wants-your-face/

#PrivacyGuides#Privacy#AgeVerification#GDPR#Biometrics#MassSurveillance

Age verification is a goldrush for providers who don’t need certification.

The risks to the privacy and security of our sensitive personal data are high.

It didn’t need to be this way. Our digital rights should come first.

Our website explains what the UK Online Safety Act means for users and site owners with age verification ⬇️

https://www.ageverificationfacts.org.uk/

#onlinesafetyact #ageverification #ageassurance #privacy #dataprotection #data #biometrics #onlinesafety #ukpolitics #ukpol

The UK Online Safety Act could’ve required proper regulation of age verification providers and given us a choice.

We should be able to pick a provider with high privacy standards that can work for any and every platform. It could and should be interoperable.

Instead, we either accept what we’re given or lose access to chunks of the Internet.

#onlinesafetyact #ageverification #ageassurance #privacy #dataprotection #data #biometrics #onlinesafety #ukpolitics #ukpol

Anyone using Grindr will have to upload an ID document and photos to US company Facetec. https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/07/03/grindr-uk-age-assurance-security/ what could go wrong?! #privacy #onlinesafety #biometrics

First, they'll ask for your official IDs to confirm your age and identity.

This will create a large treasure trove
of sensitive data, which will attract criminals, and will inevitably leak from either negligence or malice, sooner than later.

Then, they'll claim your official ID is
unreliable, because it was stolen so many times, and demand you share your biometric data.

They will collect your face scan,
your palm scan, and even your iris scan (no exaggeration, these are all already being collected by some companies for identification). They will claim it's super safe.

This will create a large treasure trove
of sensitive biometric data, which will attract criminals, and will inevitably leak from either negligence or malice, sooner than later.

Then what? Rinse and escalate.

You will have lost control of not just your corporate social media accounts by participating to this, but to any data capable of validating your identity, to your privacy rights, to the protections you could use online to stay safe.

We don't have to wait that it escalates.

We can, and must, push back and say No now. Start to say No now.

#Privacy#Biometrics#DataMinimization#AgeVerification