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padjo 6 hours ago

Funny was just testing the pilot of the Irish Government Digital Wallet. Definitely seems like the way forward if we're intent on doing identity verification. I'd rather the government mediate this than a bunch of random 3rd parties.

ulrikrasmussen 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

We also have a Danish wallet now, AltID, which implements an anonymized (assuming no collusion between issuer and eavesdropper or service provider) age verification protocol based on batches of single-use tokens which contain no personal information (except that they can be traced back to you by the issuer).

It's been released and in production since summer. Since then, several social networks have apparently started A/B testing age verification for their EU users, but how many of them actually integrate with the anonymous solution that is now available and in production? To my knowledge: 0. They all use Persona.

This highlights one of my main criticisms of EU's naive approach to regulation of tech companies. They fail to realize that any regulation that they impose will be complied with in the most malicious way possible, which is how we got cookie banners with dark patterns instead of a simple HTTP header saying no thanks to cookies.

niels8472 2 hours ago | parent [-]

In 2027 it will become mandatory for big tech to accept the EU digital wallets, so soonish they'll have to integrate with them.

ulrikrasmussen 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Well, that's at least a positive. I hope this means they are also forced to accept the weakest credential type, and that they can't require you to present the identity proof that the wallet also provides when verifying your age. Because if they are allowed to do that, then that is what will happen.

wiradikusuma 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

But usually gov't will outsource to random 3rd parties, no?

weberer an hour ago | parent | next [-]

In Finland they outsource the system to banks and telephone operators. Its a very strange system. As far as I know, its not possible to access government services just by being a citizen. You also have to have an account with one of these third parties to get in.

gorbachev 37 minutes ago | parent [-]

It's also impossible to use if you're an expat, and you get locked out of every Government online system that requires strong identification.

weberer 33 minutes ago | parent [-]

You can, but there's a couple extra hoops to jump through. You first have to go to the police station and get a state ID because banks don't accept US passports or Finnish residence permits for whatever reason. Then you can open an account at Nordea. Then you can go through Nordea's system for e-identification.

gorbachev 19 minutes ago | parent [-]

Expat...as in Finnish citizen living abroad.

padjo 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

One third party, managed by a public contract, seems much better than a parade of third parties for every service you interact with though right?

bryanrasmussen 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

probably gov will outsource to 3rd party for gov to build system to track and manage ID. Sometimes though also to manage, as in Denmark's MitID mainly managed by NETS under government set rules.

psychoslave 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

As a citizen under the France Passoire[1] and in an increasingly fascist chauvinist nationalist drifting in the geopolitical landscape, I wouldn’t be that found of delegating too much of these responsibilities to some centralized governmental institutions.

Note that’s this is not here some rant against any governmental power, just that in context, large private group use them as puppets and shrink their budget which of course impact quality of deliveries (not shaming the people who do the hard job without the relevant means). And while more distributed governmental topologies would have their own caveats, at least it would less likely offer opportunities for single point of failure.

[1] https://francepassoire.com/

m4rtink 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

On the end of the day, it is the state that issues these ID documents. So if you let the government go bad, IMHO the form of the documents does not matter that much.

During the totalitarian communist rule in Czechoslovakia, the state would regularly interfere with passports of people considered not loyal enough - withholding them outright or inventing extra paperwork that was necessary for the border police to let you out of the country. They also controlled all supply of foreign currency, both in an out.

Then if someone was actually allowed to travel outside the country but failed to return, their family and relatives would be punished, including demotion at work & prohibition of higher education.

So if your government goes bad, this is what will happen - the form of the ID takes at that point does not make much difference.

3 hours ago | parent [-]
[deleted]
drcongo 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I live in the UK and was having this exact discussion with someone recently - I'd actually prefer Apple to be the owners of my digital identity over the UK government who would happily throw you in jail for expressing support for Palestine Action.

padjo 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I think this is a bit of a non sequitur. The government will still be able to throw you in prison in either scenario. They will also be able to compel disclosure of your records in either scenario. So the difference is really just that in the scenario where apple verifies your identity there's an additional actor in the mix over who you have zero influence. It seems strictly worse.

drawfloat 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Your digital identity would then be under the jurisdiction of the US government, who (despite talking a big game) are arguably worse for that same sort of behaviour.

If anyone has to have this type of control, better it be a local national government that you can in at least some small way influence.

myrmidon 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I understand the sentiment, but your government you can actually fix by voting.

If Apple (or another large international company) suffers from decreasing margins, gets a new CEO and decides to turn the data it sits on into money there is absolutely nothing you can do, and you might in fact still stay a "forced" customer because of network effects (=> just consider whatsapp being an important communication channel in many places worldwide).

I think this attitude in general is often harmful; if your government sucks, fix the government instead of making yourself dependent on some quasi-monopolist private company.

eastbound 2 hours ago | parent [-]

You can fix companies by voting a government too. In fact, governments are quicker at fixing companies than themselves.

myrmidon 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> You can fix companies by voting a government too

Indirectly only. This is typically also always too late; instead of doing "the right thing" in the first place, companies are disincentivized by regulation from doing "bad things" again.

Regulations are like scar tissue, they don't help against getting burnt in the first place.

Preemptive regulation typically sucks, and is admittedly extremely difficult to get right; most governments don't even bother trying.

Corporation know this and exploit it ruthlessly-- there are almost never consequences as long as they keep to the letter of the law, even when acting with intent, against better knowledge and causing astronomical damage to society (just consider the whole leaded gas disaster for an extremely clear example).

segfaltnh an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Sure but even when it works it slower and less total than good policy. Of course, good policy is a rare bird, too.

esperent 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> throw you in jail for expressing support for Palestine Action.

For those unfamiliar, you are, of course, allowed to peacefully protest in support of Palestine in the UK.

Palestine Action is a specific group that was controversially labelled as a terrorist group after they broke onto a runway and spray painted military planes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_Action

Tangurena2 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It would be best for any such ID system to capture only the minimum data to fulfil their function. Pre-WW2 Dutch records also listed religion, which made it very easy for the Nazis to round up and murder them. Some examples from Kansas show that even recording sex/gender is risky - state law requires driving licenses to record the original sex/gender from the first birth certificate leading to trans women having an M sex/gender marker getting arrested and prosecuted for identity fraud.

psychoslave 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

LOL, no, not in this side thanks. Be it by giant transnational corp or centralized all powerful government, the ruin of the noosphere is equally awful.

3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]
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andai 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> increasingly fascist chauvinist nationalist drifting in the geopolitical landscape

What's going on in France?

expedition32 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

France has always been chauvinist and nationalist.

The principle reason why the Netherlands joined the EU was to sabotage the French-German alliance- all the alarm bells went off in the 1950s.

rotringlvr 2 hours ago | parent [-]

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rotringlvr 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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