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Well I never intend to upgrade my computer at this point anyway.
Pretty sure China doesn't have laws that demand your age.
Into the wilds I retreat.
We need to collectively abandon tech that insists on any of this. I post about this often, but I'll say it again: this will come with discomfort; you need to be okay with that temporarily.
These ghouls cannot withstand weeks / months of boycott. They simply can't, daddy earning reports and the shareholders won't allow it.
I’m waiting for the selfie required logins. Right now, you log into YouTube or anything else with that user base and they want a selfie and a phone number. YouTube even asks for your address. You can skip. For now.
Oh, yeah. Like those memes with selfie logins to unlock a toilet or fridge.
You log in and then the AI agent will summarize what you're watching and contact the authorities in case it flags you suspicious? How dystopian!
Sorta feels like iOS Face ID played a role in normalizing this for the general public
Oh well back to C64
Sigh, guess it’s time to bust open a pre-code copy of ‘How to build Linux from scratch’
Linux so far is mostly exempt and it's the big corporations like Microsoft, Apple, and Google who actually want it so they can sell that info and use it for ads. For Linux, just consider it one more criteria for choosing your distribution if it comes around. If the distro adds it as a requirement for install, then move to another. Fortunately there are lots of good ones these days.
Won't help much when the internet requires devices be verified by Google Play or equivalent to log into any accounts or do anything.
I guess maybe you can paint pictures and self-host things on your DIY OS, but the stuff web like banking etc that integrates you into society won't be accessible.
I fucking guess. I am at the point where I will take my children out of school if they are forced to do face scans or give any ID in order to participate and learn. I’m almost at the point where I would rather lose my job than comply with this
You should do that regardless, who's in his sane mind would trust his kids minds to the gov
take my children out of school if they are forced to do face scans or give any ID
don't know where you live, but here in the ol' U of K, schools have been doing that sort of thing for over 20 years! I was appalled when I first heard about it, and I think it was from a friend whose kids had to give fingerprints. "Oh yes I know - big brother, but it's so convenient" was their attitude.
It is appalling, but I could see parents from 20 years ago being less concerned than now. Of course back then they weren’t aggregating user data to today’s level, at least I don’t think.
What bothers me too are things like Palintir. Like, I don’t want my kid in some massive police database before they even turn 12
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i'm going to switch to devuan since systemd already pre-complied wo anyone commanding them to.
This is such a weird stance given the actual change that was made. No actual age verification, no external communication of any kind. All that got added is a number field. The ability to store a number labeled "age" for user accounts. That's it.
There already is a field for first name and last name. You can leave them blank as well (most probably do). If any software requires a number to be there, just enter 99 or whatever. Unless this gets severely worse this is such a nothing-burger.
I'm not happy about any step into that direction either, but pick your battles (or hill I guess). This certainly is a weird one.
Devuan, AntiX, and MX Linux all seem worth a look for people wanting to avoid systemd. More are listed here:
https://itsfoss.com/systemd-free-distros/
https://systemdfree.com/#distros
(FWIW, I think systemd's age data collection is optional, at least for now. It's not clear which Linux distros will implement/adopt it by default.)
no mention of guix on a systemd less distro list is crazy. not that i use guix, and im fine with systemd as a nixos user, but it feels like guix is the anti nixos. the richard stallman version of nixos with all the pros and cons that come with that
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If it does it will be the last thing it does
The Linux exemptions in Cali and Colorado bring up something else if that gets followed on a broader scale: Can't apps and services just start blocking Linux and start specifically demanding Windows or Mac?
Can’t apps and services just start blocking Linux and start specifically demanding Windows or Mac?
In principle? Yes. It could become a complete cryptographic attestation chain.
I don't think we're right on the edge of that rn. But years or decades from now? Who TF knows.
I could easily see things like Discord, Meta, Google, Reddit, and Twitter doing this if it came to that, for instance.
And nothing of value was lost.
Things will just get worse if we don't do something concrete, like organizing protest marches and petitions, going on strike, and similar.
Quoting from an episode of Slow Horses: "heavy on hashtags, light on results".
Sad thing is, is that the majority of people are too lazy, cowardly, propagandized & weak-willed. We need to be like the citizens like Hong Kong & Sri Lanka from riots against their governments (& Nepal as of recently when their government tried Identity Verification).
We need to be putting the blame towards the World Economic Forum for introducing this bullshit & our corrupt governments for kowtowing to them.
It's even sadder when you consider that SOPA caused a mass blackout protest which ultimately got it hidden away until its chance to reappear and this time maybe actually become law.
No one's doing any sort of mass blackout protests this time around.
My collection of hoarded media waits eagerly if this forces me to say goodbye to the internet outside of work obligations
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this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2026
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Privacy
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