"Verifying you're human" — a major annoyance of the Internet era — trains us to doubt ourselves, accept machine arbitration, and live in a constant state of low-grade suspicion and surveillance.
The US Bill of Rights is supposed to protect the public square, but until recently no citizen ever could’ve remained anonymous in the public square. Plus, in 18th century the citizens’ firearms were comparable to the government’s firearms, but that’s a different topic for another day …
I haven’t formed an opinion yet. I’m still listening to all sides.
But I still haven’t got a good answer to my one pressing question, “Can’t the intelligence agencies already instantly identify me? no matter what kind of VPN, etc. I use?” Plus, “Can’t they upload child porn, or instructions for a DIY 3D printer hand gun onto my hard drive, Cloud, or search history anytime they wanted to???”
My fear about losing anonymity on the internet is not reprisals from the government but reprisals from my fellow vigilante citizens.
Especially because my name is unique, according to a Google search. My first name is hundreds of years old in Western European languages, but my last name is rare. The most likely reason is that my 1750’s Germanic settler forebears were illiterate, and couldn’t properly spell their own family name 😂
So, I’ve been wondering how many law abiding US citizens like me might hurry to a judge to have our names legally changed to John Smith 😂
I think that anonymity was the purpose behind the white pointy hoods of the KKK and the Indian costumes of the Boston Tea Party. :)
The main thing protecting us is just the anonymity of being part of the herd. There just isn't any real payoff for the federal government singling out random people. It is the local authorities you are more likely to run afoul of.
They don't have to put things on your computer. They can just as easily plant a flash drive with incriminating evidence.
The one I can't stand is the Press and Hold one that places like Walmart uses. For some reason it doesn't work on my computer, probably because it's outdated and I can't update my browser. Also I hate when you have to get an email or text with a code number to continue. What's the point of a password anymore. Linking today @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
I doubt that it will last long. The internet survives for the reason that the tech giants able to claim that they are supplying endless eyes on ads. If everyone were verified, everyone will soon find out that it is all a lie.
We have children with access to all kinds of things that they shouldn't be able to access without supervision with the viewing of sexual content being the least harmful component. Kids figured out how that worked quite easily all on their own long before photography existed.
Personally, I am all for it. We need to do away with the whole password idea for individual sites. We are all too vulnerable to fraud with the current system. Whether we like it or not, we have too much information available on the internet. Banking and financial, health records, and more. We need a more secure way to identify ourselves.
What will happen if there is strict age verification is that age validation hosts will pop up. It will be something like the incognito windows in browsers. Just open a browser window that you log into and all traffic from that window will have the verification token maybe with something like two factor authentication for that session.
Yes, there is some risk of governmental monitoring. I am not particularly worried about that. That ship has sailed long ago. They already have access to whatever they want. They can just get a warrant in their private court system and even if encrypted, they can decrypt it at their leisure. That or just declare that you not decrypting it for them is proof of guilt.
All very good points! Plus, I assume the gov’t/intelligence agencies can just add child porn, etc. to your hard drive or to your Cloud or search history anytime they want to …
They really don't need to. With the tens of thousands of laws that are on the books that are so complex and conflicting that we can't even know if we are breaking the law or not. Are you really sure that the label is still on your mattress?
They don't even have to prove anything to totally destroy people's lives and take everything that they own. The process itself can be the punishment.
The US Bill of Rights is supposed to protect the public square, but until recently no citizen ever could’ve remained anonymous in the public square. Plus, in 18th century the citizens’ firearms were comparable to the government’s firearms, but that’s a different topic for another day …
I haven’t formed an opinion yet. I’m still listening to all sides.
But I still haven’t got a good answer to my one pressing question, “Can’t the intelligence agencies already instantly identify me? no matter what kind of VPN, etc. I use?” Plus, “Can’t they upload child porn, or instructions for a DIY 3D printer hand gun onto my hard drive, Cloud, or search history anytime they wanted to???”
My fear about losing anonymity on the internet is not reprisals from the government but reprisals from my fellow vigilante citizens.
Especially because my name is unique, according to a Google search. My first name is hundreds of years old in Western European languages, but my last name is rare. The most likely reason is that my 1750’s Germanic settler forebears were illiterate, and couldn’t properly spell their own family name 😂
So, I’ve been wondering how many law abiding US citizens like me might hurry to a judge to have our names legally changed to John Smith 😂
I think that anonymity was the purpose behind the white pointy hoods of the KKK and the Indian costumes of the Boston Tea Party. :)
The main thing protecting us is just the anonymity of being part of the herd. There just isn't any real payoff for the federal government singling out random people. It is the local authorities you are more likely to run afoul of.
They don't have to put things on your computer. They can just as easily plant a flash drive with incriminating evidence.
The one I can't stand is the Press and Hold one that places like Walmart uses. For some reason it doesn't work on my computer, probably because it's outdated and I can't update my browser. Also I hate when you have to get an email or text with a code number to continue. What's the point of a password anymore. Linking today @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
It’s straight from the Ministry of How to Make Life More Difficult, isn’t it?
I doubt that it will last long. The internet survives for the reason that the tech giants able to claim that they are supplying endless eyes on ads. If everyone were verified, everyone will soon find out that it is all a lie.
We have children with access to all kinds of things that they shouldn't be able to access without supervision with the viewing of sexual content being the least harmful component. Kids figured out how that worked quite easily all on their own long before photography existed.
Personally, I am all for it. We need to do away with the whole password idea for individual sites. We are all too vulnerable to fraud with the current system. Whether we like it or not, we have too much information available on the internet. Banking and financial, health records, and more. We need a more secure way to identify ourselves.
What will happen if there is strict age verification is that age validation hosts will pop up. It will be something like the incognito windows in browsers. Just open a browser window that you log into and all traffic from that window will have the verification token maybe with something like two factor authentication for that session.
Yes, there is some risk of governmental monitoring. I am not particularly worried about that. That ship has sailed long ago. They already have access to whatever they want. They can just get a warrant in their private court system and even if encrypted, they can decrypt it at their leisure. That or just declare that you not decrypting it for them is proof of guilt.
All very good points! Plus, I assume the gov’t/intelligence agencies can just add child porn, etc. to your hard drive or to your Cloud or search history anytime they want to …
They really don't need to. With the tens of thousands of laws that are on the books that are so complex and conflicting that we can't even know if we are breaking the law or not. Are you really sure that the label is still on your mattress?
They don't even have to prove anything to totally destroy people's lives and take everything that they own. The process itself can be the punishment.
"Show me the man and I'll show you the crime."
That's Mr. I am not a Robot
Lovely stack. Wonderfully thought provoking as always.