86
So, has age verification really become the new normal?
(lemmy.world)
Not for me
Hello Nebula
You have absolutely f*cked yourself over by doing that. It's not a matter of if that ID you just gave them is going to get leaked, it's a matter of when and by who. These ID verification companies are infamous for mishandling this kind of information and are huge easy targets for hackers.
I would highly recommend preparing for the worst now before it happens so when your ID does get compromised you already have things handled.
Do not give these companies your ID unless you really like the idea of someone POS using it to commit crimes on your behalf.
Focked?
Feked
... I just had to verify my age ...
No you did not. You chose to do so.
I have not used WhatsApp in 10+ years, Windows in 4+ years, Google services in 2+ years.
It is a choice, stop lying to yourself about having to accept things.
No no no fucking NO!
Do NOT accept this! Do NOT normalize this! DO NOT COMPLY!
Did you really need to see that youtube video? If it was that important, then find another way. Lie. Get a downloader. Get creative. Or walk away, since it was probably not that important
DON'T SELL YOUR IDENTITY FOR CONVENIENCE. DON'T WILLINGLY FEED THE SPIES MORE INFORMATION.
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(15 replies)
you just did your part to normalize it.
Not for me it fucking hasn't.
And won't.
Are you giving up your privacy to a profit driven corporation who absolutely can't be trusted with it, just because you want to watch a video that has no real point other than entertainment?
That's what normalisation of age verification looks like...
For YouTube, use a VPN that terminates in Albania. Like magic, no more forced sign ins, or ads, or age checks.
Didn't work for me.
wouldnt using an adblocker or something like invidious be easier?
Doesn't get rid off age verifications.
im pretty sure you dont need to verify your age when using invidious
you could also just fake it
Why is that?
Their laws don't allow online advertising (or something, I'm not clear on the actual details).
No ads on YouTube, Spotify can still play ads for premium (but they don't make any money from them), and you can play mobile games without having to deal with ads too.
Any suggestions on VPNs that do that?
Private Internet Access works. But someone recently pointed out to me that they are owned by some not so great companies. Your choice.
The link doesn't work, I think. It goes to an unrelated comment, explaining why to do that, but I asked which vpns do that.
Huh, you’re right, I don’t know how I read it so wrong. Anyway, to answer your actual question, most paid vpns will do that, and probably some free ones. My personal recommendation is mullvad vpn, they are by far the best company and they probably have all the features you’ll need
Hahahaha! No worries at all! Mulvad has been in my sights for a while. I keep hearing of vpns failing their users or failing society, and I keep waiting for them to fail this way, too. But you recommending them, too is helping sway me.
I haven't age verified anything and I don't plan to. It's only normal when you normalize it. If something will no longer allow me access without verifying my age, I will either find a way around it or I will no longer use that thing. If Youtube is not going to let me watch age restricted videos, so what? I will not watch age restricted videos on Youtube. I will instead use an addon to find them on odysee or peertube instead if possible, or I'll just live my life accepting that video probably wasn't one I really needed that contained the only key to living a happy life. It's not that important, certainly not important enough to verify my age to the surveillance police.
If they try to make me age verify my home internet connection, well then I'm gonna have to get real creative, sure, but rest assured I will (with the help of the rest of the privacy-oriented community) find ways to obfuscate the fuck out of all traffic in and out of my network so thoroughly it won't even matter if they know who owns my internet connection because it won't even be relevant anymore. VPN everything. Become an open relay. Join the I2P project. Embrace mesh networking. Fuck them, they can't stop us all.
you can ignore those. But services require ID/ facial scans is becoming more pervasive, and it only serves one thing surveillance.
I haven't been able to watch age restricted videos on YouTube for many years since I closed my google account.
I'm used to not being able to watch or go anywhere I want.
I haven’t tried for age restricted, but ytdlp works for those “sign in to verify you’re not a bot” prompts. Might be worth checking out if it works for those too. Or just you know, fuck yt off.
It doesn't have to be. While the real issue is like all surveillance, it will get pushed back against and then repackaged later as a "new" idea again.
We've been doing this song and dance since the Clipper Chips.
Once the politicians start realizing they cannot legislate math and that they are also at risk under these systems, we'll see bigger pushback to them again.
Hasn't yet.
Is becoming, yes. There are still plenty of opportunities to stop it provided that the democratic process remains somewhat functional and governments have not gone into "we are the rulers, we decide whatever we want, screw the will of the people" mode yet.
I don't have the answer on how far on the path toward that aforementioned mode we are. :(
Not for me, I don't participate in any service that requires it
It only becomes normalized if we continue using those services.. If these co's saw a meaurable reduction in engagement after implenting these rules they would back peddle. The almighty dollar is king afterall.
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I refuse.
Haven't interacted with anything forcing it yet.
Try using GrayJay or some other frontend to avoid restrictions. The more resistance, the more clear it becomes that the people don't want this until politicians are forced to compromise (if they don't want to get hanged)
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this post was submitted on 21 May 2026
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