{"id":10406,"date":"2022-03-21T16:26:45","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T20:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/?p=10406"},"modified":"2022-03-21T16:26:45","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T20:26:45","slug":"google-to-sometimes-require-id-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/?p=10406","title":{"rendered":"Google To (Sometimes) Require ID in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reclaim The Net<\/a> has a very disturbing article<\/a> about Google\u2019s recent announcement that starting next month they will require proof of age before allowing Australian users to view certain \u201cage-appropriate\u201d content. The proof would consist of uploading a copy of the user\u2019s drivers license, passport, or credit card. The new policy is in response to a new Australian law requiring such proof \u201cto protect the children\u201d.<\/p>\n

The first paragraph of the article is<\/p>\n

\nGovernments all over the world have started pushing for ways to collect ID on social media users, often under the guise of providing a safe space for kids online.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When I first read that I thought it was hyperbolic pearl clutching from the privacy sector. After some thought, I think they may have a point. Policies like this are never what they seem. It is almost universally true that whenever you see the phrase \u201cthink of the children\u201d, you should check your wallet because someone is trying to run a scam on you.<\/p>\n

With that in mind you needn\u2019t be overly cynical to wonder if the real purpose of the policy is to collect the names and credentials of people doing things the nosy Parkers don\u2019t approve of. Google\u2019s embracing of the policy isn\u2019t hard to understand either. They\u2019re always trying to collect that exact type of information from their users. And no one but a fool would take their assurances about privacy and destroying the data seriously. The Iron Law of Data Collection<\/a> tells us that more and more data will be collected and that it will be abused. It\u2019s a safe prediction that it won\u2019t be long before the first case of the government demanding a user\u2019s data. It\u2019s all to protect the children, of course.<\/p>\n

The final irony is that the \u201cchildren\u201d whom this policy purports to protect know far more about the use of the Internet then the drooling clowns who pass such laws. If they want to see restricted material they\u2019ll simply use a VPN to make it appear the request isn\u2019t coming from Australia. If you come from the class of people who describe the Internet as a series of tubes<\/a>, that last sentence won\u2019t make any sense to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reclaim The Net has a very disturbing article about Google\u2019s recent announcement that starting next month they will require proof of age before allowing Australian users to view certain \u201cage-appropriate\u201d content. The proof would consist of uploading a copy of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[62],"class_list":["post-10406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10406"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10407,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10406\/revisions\/10407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}