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New Zealand prepares biometric age credential for Govt.nz digital wallet | Biometric Update
Developed by Hospitality NZ and built on NEC’s Identity Cloud Platform, the system uses verifiable credentials to allow users to prove they are over 18 for hospitality and event access without disclosing unnecessary personal data. Or they could have used a piece of cardboard. https://www.biometricupdate.com/202605/new-zealand-prepares-biometric-age-credential-for-govt-nz-digital-wallet
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How Often Do Consumers Balk at Doing Online Age Authentication? | Technology & Marketing Law Blog
In search engine parlance, the “bounce” rate is the percent of searchers who click on a search results link and then immediately hit the back button … I’m going to analogize bounce rates to the rate that consumers fail to overcome age authentication walls, which I’ll call the “balk rate.” … https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2026/05/how-often-do-consumers-balk-at-doing-online-age-authentication.htm
Fediverse reactions
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Mandatory Age Verification + Lack of Account Memorialization = Horrific Insensitivity by Substack (& others?)
This, from Mark Nottingham; it’s easy to throw mud at Substack for implementing age verification in this way / for not implementing out of band account memorialization, but this underscores how age verification is a proxy for state mandated identity checks in systems that have no other reason to perform them & are not (should
Fediverse reactions
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UK Government King’s Speech proposes “Cyber ASBO” with obvious risk of scope creep into censorship
Nobody can convince me that by the time it gets through parliament something with this name & frame won’t turn into a general TCN to gag nerd speech about cryptography and security: The King’s Speech briefing notes also referenced proposed “Cyber Crime Risk Orders” […which] could give authorities powers to impose restrictions on individuals considered
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Don’t take away our freedom to play games when we want | 38 Degrees
Gamer’s Voice; and absolutely nobody is talking about “teaching our kids to laugh at, and circumvent, authority”. Quote: If ministers use these powers, it could mean: Young people locked out of games like Fortnite, Minecraft, League of Legends or Counter-Strike after set times such as 9pm; Families losing the ability to decide for themselves how
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‘Von der Leyen Announces the EU’s New Age Verification App Claiming it is “Completely Anonymous” & users “Cannot be Tracked”’ | …the EU is about to have its ‘Clipper’ moment
Who is going to be this generation’s Matt Blaze? 🙂 The Clipper Chip was announced on April 16, 1993, exactly 33 years ago, less one day:
Fediverse reactions
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From 2019: ‘If there were 5 million “bad people” on Facebook – terrorists, criminals, drug-dealers, whatever – that would be 0.2% of the userbase’
99.8% would not be “bad people”. This is “scale”. Occasionally people need reminding how this works.
Fediverse reactions
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I find it bizarre that the AgeVerification (AV) industry says “platforms don’t want AV because they don’t want private data” – BUT civil society says “platforms DO want AV because they want private data”
It’s like those criticisms of the BBC where they receive conflicting hate from both sides, so you have to start wondering whether the platforms aren’t simply doing the right thing to have pissed-off everybody. Probably, yes, given the circumstances. Compare Contrast
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Trump posts graphic video of slaying to argue for stricter immigration policies | BBC News
“Hey, d’ya remember the good old days back when journalists, politicians & civil society would rage that platforms “must do more to take down violent content” – including proactive censorship – RATHER THAN POLITELY COMMENT ABOUT IT BEING REPOSTED & AMPLIFIED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE USA ON HIS OWN SITE?” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1eqvpw3j1no
Fediverse reactions