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. […]
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