Rindala Alajaji (Hacker News):
I’m old enough to remember when age verification bills were pitched as a way to ‘save the kids from porn’ and shield them from other vague dangers lurking in the digital world (like…“the transgender”). We have long cautioned about the dangers of these laws, and pointed out why they are likely to fail. While they may be well-intentioned, the growing proliferation of age verification schemes poses serious risks to all of our digital freedoms.
Fast forward a few years, and these laws have morphed into something else entirely—unfortunately, something we expected. What started as a misguided attempt to protect minors from “explicit” content online has spiraled into a tangled mess of privacy-invasive surveillance schemes affecting skincare products, dating apps, and even diet pills, threatening everyone’s right to privacy.
Tim Cook is personally involved in an attempt to stop a Texas child safety bill targeting the App Store from becoming law, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Per the report, Tim Cook personally called Texas Governor Greg Abbott last week asking him to either amend or veto the bill that, if it becomes law, will require Apple and Google to collect age data for every user who wants to download an app.
I don’t really understand what’s going on here. iOS already added APIs for this, which seem like a good solution and much more private than handling this at the app level. Is the issue that the APIs somehow don’t satisfy Texas’s requirements? Or does Cook want to avoid any regulation at the marketplace level on principle?
WSJ:
In the weeks leading up to its passage, Apple hired more lobbyists to pressure lawmakers. An interest group it funds targeted the Austin, Texas, area with ads saying the legislation is “backed by porn websites.”
But the App Store doesn’t allow porn, anyway, except via apps that are third-party Web browsers. Obviously, Apple’s not going to bat for them.
Previously:
