56
Google Canada starts using account activity to estimate your age
(mobilesyrup.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2026
56 points (98.3% liked)
DeGoogle Yourself
17868 readers
244 users here now
A community for those that would like to get away from Google.
Here you may post anything related to DeGoogling, why we should do it or good software alternatives!
Rules
-
Be respectful even in disagreement
-
No advertising unless it is very relevent and justified. Do not do this excessively.
-
No low value posts / memes. We or you need to learn, or discuss something.
Related communities
!privacyguides@lemmy.one !privacy@lemmy.ml !privatelife@lemmy.ml !linuxphones@lemmy.ml !fossdroid@social.fossware.space !fdroid@lemmy.ml
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
I mean, that's hypothetically less invasive than requiring your photo ID, and it's exactly what people have been asking for for stuff like Steam being required to identify a user's age. If the account itself is over 18 years old, the user is. If it had an attached debit card, you can probably assume it's an adult. Etc.
So on one hand, eww privacy. On the other, it's info they already have on you and better than forcing ID.
Attached debit card would be a bad measure, as there's a lot of parents who would give their kids their card info to save.
Account age should most definitely be the first measurement, followed by activity(time of day and type of content).
Either way, you shouldn't have to tell anyone how old you are to use your device.