this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2025
196 points (99.5% liked)

Technology

77084 readers
2625 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
all 38 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] mjr@infosec.pub 60 points 1 day ago (4 children)

[Users] who believe they have been wrongly categorised as under 16 can ask for a review and submit a "video selfie" to verify their age. They can also provide a driver's licence or a government-issued identification.

Because uploading your image and ID to Meta isn't a security risk at all, oh no.

Why are governments helping Meta and friends harvest their citizens' data? Evil or clueness?

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago

Surveillance capitalism just wants to completely destroy all anonymity for data harvesting, propaganda, and control purposes.

...

Considering Epstein didn't kill himself, and literally none of his hundreds/thousands of oligarch-customers have faced any consequences, this pedelephant in the room could very well be what chat control, photo scanning, etc is actually all about.

Parent takes photo of their baby/child in the rudey nudey > custom pedo-developed algorithm flags it as potential child porn > sends image/vid to gov server for "verification" > data gets "hacked" by pedos.

Same system could easily be adapted to stealing everyones private sex pics/vids, as the entire idea is that it's performed by closed source applications in the background, without the user ever being aware.

And with the way CSAM works, governments could easily insert hashes of ANY files — say a whistleblower steals the un-redacted Epstein files — so OS's/services would identify everyone who had downloaded that file(s), sending the alarm straight to the secret police's surveillance system; maybe they could be silenced before they've had a chance to tell anyone.

[–] MoreZombies@quokk.au 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I "lost" my old FB account because they demanded my ID to verify my legal name, near 11 years ago. I fucking refuse, and will always refuse.

Fuck Zucc.

[–] mjr@infosec.pub 1 points 1 day ago

What do you use instead for online social groups? Do you ever hit a group or business that's only on Meta apps, whether fakebook or whatsapp?

[–] sqgl@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I got flagged on Facebook for using an obviously fake name. So I changed to a more plausible sounding name and it worked. I had prepared a doctored passport scan but it wasn't necessary.

For another FB account they wanted me to get at least two user friends to verify they know me or some bs like that. I didn't bother. Years later I was able to log into that one anyhow.

They know that they can't push too hard.

[–] MoreZombies@quokk.au 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

mine is still blocked ;_; not that it is an issue anymore. I did create a second account for a bit but now am basically completely disconnected from their... "service"... of my own volition.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Evil, since they probably have backdoors into all of those systems. Though I’m not sure why they want a bunch of videos of 16 year olds…

[–] mjr@infosec.pub 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Though I’m not sure why they want a bunch of videos of 16 year olds…

Do they have pizza restaurants with secret basements in Aus? /s

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It's hilarious how little the qtards are up in arms about literal evidence of a deep state pedophile cabal, but some emails that were entirely innocuous outside of the melted brain goo leaking from their ears. Jeffrey wasn't talking about walnut sauce in his emails about touching children, so it could mean anything!

Well, not 'haha' hilarious, more 'existential crisis caused by countrymen with IQs lower than freezer temp' hilarious.

[–] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 74 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] Rothe@piefed.social 25 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Of course. They are gathering data from people who have never even had a meta account.

[–] sqgl@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Yes because if someone installs the Facebook app they have had their phone contacts list slurped. They then build a map of our circles of friends.

It's not just that, look into pixel. It's harvests your data on almost every website.

[–] Netrunner@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Why don't people just use ai to generate fake licenses? Fight the system.

[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

On the one hand, I actually think this is a very good thing. Social media is especially damaging to children.

However:

The government says platforms must take “reasonable steps” to keep kids off their sites and use age assurance technologies, such as uploading official ID or facial/voice recognition, but they haven’t specified what technology platforms should use.

I hope the law stipulates that Meta is not allowed to keep this data, or use it for any purpose other than the verification itself. Not for training, not for building a profile on someone, nothing. Unfortunately the article doesn't elaborate on that.

If they're allowed to keep that data, then that needs to be addressed immediately. It'd be all kinds of fucked up.

[–] lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com 0 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

As the US Congressional commission on similar laws reported decades ago

  • age verification is ineffective with highly adverse impacts
  • client-side filtering[^parental-controls] is more effective with less adverse impacts.

Those conclusions still hold today.

[^parental-controls]: ie, parental controls, which have been available & widespread for ages. Parents supply their children with technology & pay for everything they have. It's entirely within their power to enable parental controls on all their children's devices instead of expect government to take over their parenting duties.

[–] sleen@lemmy.zip 1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

The state has no place for parenting children, the parents are there specifically for this.

All this is going to result in, is a half working system that has no understanding of the differences between a child and a adolescent - ultimately spewing out ageist tropes that will further dehumanise fully aware individuals.

Children should be engaged with and actively tailoring their scope of internet usage - and as they grow up to be adolescents, freedom should be provided. This is all active, growing with the individual for the individual.

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

If they're allowed to keep that data, then that needs to be addressed immediately. It'd be all kinds of fucked up.

Don't worry, they probably use a third party to have this that says it deleted the data, doesn't, and will be hacked within a year.

Wait, no. Do worry.

[–] thatonecoder@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The problem is not even social media itself, but the fact that profit-driven ANYTHING cares more about money than its own consumers. Quite frankly, what should be happening is to see some of these people changing to better alternatives, like Mastodon and Lemmy.

Finally, I do not believe this will remain only for the 16- age group. I am aware this is extreme speculation, but this may eventually roll out to some “dangerous” adults, then union workers (again, “dangerous), then women, then everyone that is not wealthy enough to bribe oneself into social media. I also believe this is one of many steps to castrate the future of the young, and to control the narrative.

Do not take my word for it, however; check back in this post, some years from now.

[–] drascus@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You know I stopped at "meta is kicking Australian children" and had a good laugh.

[–] mjr@infosec.pub 1 points 1 day ago

Hilarious truncated headlines are hilarious.

[–] jobbies@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Usually I'm against this sort of thing but hear me out:

  • it'll at least keep SOME kids off social media
  • "kids will just use VPNs" >> some will, but maybe govs will finally realise how stupid trying to block things are and actually start regulating social media properly
  • "kids will just join other social medias" >> not great but maybe that'll help break meta's dominance?
[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

kids will just use VPNs" >> some will, but maybe govs will finally realise how stupid trying to block things are and actually start regulating social media properly

We're seeing in real time that some (US) states that pass these stupid age verification laws are already going after VPNs instead of realizing their law is dumb.

I can guarantee they're going to try to completely outlaw VPNs before they do any kind of meaningful regulation on social media, when they can use that as a massive data warehouse by making favorable decisions to the oligarchs running them.

[–] tocano@piefed.social 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

We have won, but at what cost...

[–] mjr@infosec.pub 1 points 1 day ago

Correction: they think they've won, but only because they're clueless.

[–] einlander@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

So how does this affect all those kids with Meta Quest VR? This is why I don't own a quest and still have HTC goggles regardless of that flaws.

[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

There's probably a distinction between a Meta account and a Facebook account.

[–] Klear@quokk.au -2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I would imagine not at all given that you don't need a facebook account for Quest and the headset doesn't count as social media.

[–] Anarki_@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They're making it harder and harder to use without a FB account. I believe the newest one is near impossible.

[–] Klear@quokk.au -2 points 1 day ago

Nah, the other way around. Facebook account used to be a requirement years ago, but they dropped it pretty soon.