Canada’s proposed Bill S-209, which addresses online age verification, is currently making its way through the Senate, and its passage would be yet another mistake in tech policy.
The bill is intended to restrict young peoples’ access to online pornography and to hold providers to account for making it available to anyone under 18. It may be well-intentioned, but the manner of its proposed enforcement – mandating age verification or what is being called “age-estimation technologies” – is troubling.
Globally, age-verification tools are a popular business, and many companies are in favour of S-209, particularly because it requires that websites and organizations rely on third parties for these tools. However, they bring up long-standing concerns over privacy, especially when you consider potential leaks or hacks of this information, which in some cases include biometrics that can identify us by our faces or fingerprints. […]
It’s never about porn or children. It’s about control, money and a fear of ones own citizenry.
For sure, only pure evil motives. Establishment needs to destroy Canada to pillage it. Wrap it up in war on China and Russia. Deliver Canadian slaves to Israel and US oligarchy.
The only way this would be acceptable is if they built a trustless authenticator. Until then they can fuck the hell off.
The tech exists and has for decades and is battle hardened. It is called zero proof knowledge but Centralized power wants nothing to do with it as it is a decentralized technology. It is ok, as we will be forced to move towards decentralized services the more we wade into the new AI/Quantum Age as anything Centralized is a sitting duck for being hacked and hacked often to the point that they become useless.
It may be well-intentioned
It may, but it is not.
The dark web became known as the hideout of internet criminals. Once we’re all internet criminals, it will just be the hideout of everyone. Time to drop all these commercial services that we’ve let take over the internet and go back to being anonymous weirdos talking to other anonymous weirdos on websites run by anonymous weirdos. The web was ironically a nicer place. Also a shittier place, but at the same time a nicer place. This is why we can’t have nice things.
It’s always referred to as age verification, but it’s ID verification. It’s the introduction of a regime where you can’t use the internet without everyone knowing exactly who you are, and without the government being able to track your activity via your ID. Governments around the world are making what must surely be a coordinated effort to end anonymity, and thus privacy, online. In other countries this has gone along with a push to end encryption for phone calls and chat, and a push to outlaw VPNs. Canada’s government is embarking on a program that’s very hostile to its own population.
Its not "well intentioned”, the silpery slope is the point. Getting porn sites to essentially self censor by restricting what geographic regions have accesss until one day its the majority of places and suddenly banning porn sites in the remaining hold outs doesnt seem like such a hard sell, and then on to other subjects they dont like.
I was never excited for Carney (and the Liberals’ continuation of power), but I really didn’t think they’d anger me as much as they have been*. Yes, I’m happy we don’t have PP in power, but at times it’s feeling like we may as well have reached the same outcome minus the culture war shit.
I really hope the NDP makes a strong comeback**
Edit (corrections):
*Apparently it was not a bill put forward by Liberal MPs
**The NDP actually supported the first bill of this kind so they’re not much help in this situation
I’m not one to glaze Carney, but for the benefit of factuality - this bill was proposed by a senator, not a Liberal MP under Carney. We’ll see whether it goes further.
Thank you for the correction, I’ll update my comment
Afaik this is a senate bill and similar to s210 from last parliament, the NDP voted in favour of that one last session which I’m extremely disappointed about, I recall the NDP being pro privacy in the past, which totally got some of my friends interested in them in the first place.
It’s even more disappointing that the liberals were the only party with Nay votes on that one. I realise that wasn’t passing this bill but still, unimpressed.
Edit. This showed up earlier too in s203 back a few parliaments ago. Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne is the sponsor on all of these.
Ah, you’re correct (sadly). Now that you mention it I remember the NDP voting in favour for that which is depressing to say the least
How about instead we ban propaganda and bots?
But that would be impossible, you know. And we can’t just go around controlling what people say and think and consume, you know. Because free speech and such and so forth and so on.
collects lobbyist payment
Nooooo, I thought Canada was very far from this bull shit
So did I 🥲
Call or write to your MP. Let them know that no one wants this.
Stop that garbage bill that will expose your data to criminals in data breaches.
That’s always been the point.
Conspiracy: We just learned a large, organized, and barely secret pedophile ring consisting of high level government officials and business people is/was controlling the American government and probably most large western corporations
Sounds like they actually want everyone back onto the sites that don’t verify ages or content because it will destroy the regulated porn industry entirely.
Manwin is based out of Montreal, i.e. Pornhub. I can’t see this passing. Canada is quite literally the porn capital of the world, trust me I know I worked for 3 separate porn companies here in Canada. I just don’t see it happening.
I’d rather this type of legislation not even be entertained in Parliament and treated the same way as if someone tried to propose banning oxygen. I’ll be writing to my MP tomorrow and I encourage everyone reading this to do the same. If you let them take a centimetre of our privacy, they’ll take an entire kilometre.
