The problem is the implementation is hasty.

When I go buy a beer at the gas station, all I do is show my ID to the cashier. They look at it to verify DOB and then that's it. No information is stored permanently in some database that's going to get hacked and leaked.

We can't trust every private company that now has to verify age to not store that information with whatever questionable security.

If we aren't going to do a national registry that services can query to get back only a "yes or no" on whether a user is of age or not, then we need regulation to prevent the storage of ID information.

We should still be able to verify age while remaining psuedo-anonymous.

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dragonwriter 9 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

> If we aren't going to do a national registry that services can query to get back only a "yes or no" on whether a user is of age or not

And note that if we are, the records of the request to that database are an even bigger privacy timebomb than those of any given provider, just waiting for malicious actors with access to government records.

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criddell 44 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> When I go buy a beer at the gas station, all I do is show my ID to the cashier. They look at it to verify DOB and then that's it. No information is stored permanently in some database that's going to get hacked and leaked.

Beer, sure. But if you buy certain decongestants, they do log your ID. At least that's the case in Texas.

	▲	dragonwriter 8 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> But if you buy certain decongestants, they do log your ID. Yeah, but many people don't actually think War on Drugs policies are a model for civil liberties that should be extended beyond that domain (or, in many cases, even tolerated in that domain.) That policy has been effective, I guess, in promoting the sales of alternative “decongestants” (that don't actually work), though it did little to curb use and harms from the drugs it was supposed to control by attacking supply.

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xp84 an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

We should easily be able to, but the problem of tech illiteracy is probably our main barrier. To build such a system you’d need to issue those credentials to the end users. Those users in turn would eagerly believe conspiracy theories that the digital ID system was actually stealing their data or making it available to MORE parties instead of fewer (compared to using those ID verification services we have today).