If enough Canadians contact their local representatives, as well the Mark Carney's office this week, we might be spared from this authoritarian mass-surveillance measure called "Age Verification" in Canada.
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If enough Canadians contact
their local representatives, as well Mark Carney's office this week, we might be spared from this authoritarian mass-surveillance measure called "Age Verification" in Canada.The time to fight back is NOW: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/social-media-ban-for-kids-under-consideration-in-online-harms-bill-carney/
Privacy is a human right essential to safety and democracy. If we do not fight to protect it, we will lose it.
#AgeVerification #MassSurveillance #Privacy #Democracy #HumanRights #Canada #CanPoli
@Em0nM4stodon incessantly having to fight these attempts at mass surveillance and privacy infringement is truly exhausting.
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If enough Canadians contact
their local representatives, as well Mark Carney's office this week, we might be spared from this authoritarian mass-surveillance measure called "Age Verification" in Canada.The time to fight back is NOW: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/social-media-ban-for-kids-under-consideration-in-online-harms-bill-carney/
Privacy is a human right essential to safety and democracy. If we do not fight to protect it, we will lose it.
#AgeVerification #MassSurveillance #Privacy #Democracy #HumanRights #Canada #CanPoli
@Em0nM4stodon@infosec.exchange is there a specific bill or something to reference? Or should I simply send an email saying something like "I am strongly against online age-verification as it is a major breach of privacy, and will cause more harm than good to those out claims to protect"?
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@Em0nM4stodon@infosec.exchange is there a specific bill or something to reference? Or should I simply send an email saying something like "I am strongly against online age-verification as it is a major breach of privacy, and will cause more harm than good to those out claims to protect"?
@PurpleStephyr @Em0nM4stodon I've been looking for etitions and all are pro age verification ;/
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@Em0nM4stodon@infosec.exchange is there a specific bill or something to reference? Or should I simply send an email saying something like "I am strongly against online age-verification as it is a major breach of privacy, and will cause more harm than good to those out claims to protect"?
@PurpleStephyr I think a general statement in opposition will be more effective than referring any specific bills. It could be good to mention the concerning trend elsewhere and how experts strongly opposes it as well.
The important part is that our local MPs and elected government officials know in advance that the population is strongly opposed to age-verification or identity-verification policies, before they get a strong push in favour from lobbyists.
That way, when the bill proposals inevitably come, they will know this would be a very unpopular move, and will hopefully listen to their constituents more than the lobbyists.
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If enough Canadians contact
their local representatives, as well Mark Carney's office this week, we might be spared from this authoritarian mass-surveillance measure called "Age Verification" in Canada.The time to fight back is NOW: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/social-media-ban-for-kids-under-consideration-in-online-harms-bill-carney/
Privacy is a human right essential to safety and democracy. If we do not fight to protect it, we will lose it.
#AgeVerification #MassSurveillance #Privacy #Democracy #HumanRights #Canada #CanPoli
For anyone who would like to read/share some supporting material on the issue of age verification, I wrote this article about it back in May 2025: https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/05/06/age-verification-wants-your-face/
The @eff also has this excellent resource with many helpful articles on the topic here: https://www.eff.org/issues/age-verification
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If enough Canadians contact
their local representatives, as well Mark Carney's office this week, we might be spared from this authoritarian mass-surveillance measure called "Age Verification" in Canada.The time to fight back is NOW: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/social-media-ban-for-kids-under-consideration-in-online-harms-bill-carney/
Privacy is a human right essential to safety and democracy. If we do not fight to protect it, we will lose it.
#AgeVerification #MassSurveillance #Privacy #Democracy #HumanRights #Canada #CanPoli
@Em0nM4stodon PMO office contact here, though there may be better methods https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/connect/contact
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@Em0nM4stodon PMO office contact here, though there may be better methods https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/connect/contact
-
If enough Canadians contact
their local representatives, as well Mark Carney's office this week, we might be spared from this authoritarian mass-surveillance measure called "Age Verification" in Canada.The time to fight back is NOW: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/social-media-ban-for-kids-under-consideration-in-online-harms-bill-carney/
Privacy is a human right essential to safety and democracy. If we do not fight to protect it, we will lose it.
#AgeVerification #MassSurveillance #Privacy #Democracy #HumanRights #Canada #CanPoli
@Em0nM4stodon just ban X, Facebook, Truth social, and llms
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If enough Canadians contact
their local representatives, as well Mark Carney's office this week, we might be spared from this authoritarian mass-surveillance measure called "Age Verification" in Canada.The time to fight back is NOW: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/social-media-ban-for-kids-under-consideration-in-online-harms-bill-carney/
Privacy is a human right essential to safety and democracy. If we do not fight to protect it, we will lose it.
#AgeVerification #MassSurveillance #Privacy #Democracy #HumanRights #Canada #CanPoli
@Em0nM4stodon this is yet another reason why privacy by design should be implemented into the forever delayed Federal Identity Program and it's cascade down to the provincial and municipal level
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@Em0nM4stodon sent, included a snippit from https://leaflessca.wordpress.com/2026/02/09/wrong-ban/
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If enough Canadians contact
their local representatives, as well Mark Carney's office this week, we might be spared from this authoritarian mass-surveillance measure called "Age Verification" in Canada.The time to fight back is NOW: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/social-media-ban-for-kids-under-consideration-in-online-harms-bill-carney/
Privacy is a human right essential to safety and democracy. If we do not fight to protect it, we will lose it.
#AgeVerification #MassSurveillance #Privacy #Democracy #HumanRights #Canada #CanPoli
Hey @OpenMediaOrg do you have a campaign for this?
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Hey @OpenMediaOrg do you have a campaign for this?
@controlc blog coming this week. we'll campaign on it when there's an actual proposal - right now they're hearing from their expert group and we can hope worst ideas will be discouraged.
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If enough Canadians contact
their local representatives, as well Mark Carney's office this week, we might be spared from this authoritarian mass-surveillance measure called "Age Verification" in Canada.The time to fight back is NOW: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/social-media-ban-for-kids-under-consideration-in-online-harms-bill-carney/
Privacy is a human right essential to safety and democracy. If we do not fight to protect it, we will lose it.
#AgeVerification #MassSurveillance #Privacy #Democracy #HumanRights #Canada #CanPoli
Thanks for getting the word out about this @Em0nM4stodon ! @Paulatics do you know the timeframe for likely action on the Canadian online harms bill?
We just successfully prevented the Washington state legislature from passing several age verification laws, so it certainly can be done! A couple of key takeaways:
- The letter from a coalition of 90 organizations dedicated to LGBTQ+ rights, abortion access, rights for youth, privacy, and freedom of speech has a great summary of the harms of these technologies:
"For vulnerable communities, a biometric scan or an ID upload can serve as a huge obstacle, especially for low-income, unhoused, and undocumented people who already have to navigate an increasingly digital world, with less access to tech tools."
Online ID Checks Censor Abortion Information Age-Verification Laws Seek to Erase LGBTQ+ Identity from the Internet are also good at highlighting harms to vulnerable users.
Discord is the poster child for age verification's privacy problems. Discord Breach Sparks Age Verification & Third-Party Privacy Concerns highlights the risks of hackers getting at age verification data. Discord's age verification rollout has ties to Palantir co-founder and panopticon architect Peter Thiel Hackers Expose Age-Verification Software Powering Surveillance Web highlights how broadly age verification vendors share the data. US laws typically have clauses that put some limits on retention and sharing but in practice they're not enough.
Lobbyists have succeeded in convincing legislators that age estimation software works well ... but actually it doesn't. Error rates are high, and higher for people of color; and people. As a result, even if the vendor claims they're using some fancy-shmancy approach involving biometrics or selfies, in practice a lot of people have to send in their government IDs (with all the aspects of fraud that involves). My [updated written testimony for Appropriations[(https://privacy.thenexus.today/hb-1834-approps/#updated-written-testimony) discusses this, based on the data from the Australian Age Assurance Technology Trial (search for "You've probably heard lobbyists and vendors talk about how accurate today's age systems are, but reality begs to differ") and also talks about the privacy issues.
@eff's Why Isn’t Online Age Verification Just Like Showing Your ID In Person? counters one of the most common talking points of age verification proponents (although, I'm not sure how effective it is, so it might be worth taking another crack at this).
It's critical to highlight age verification's impact on 2SLGBTQIA_ communities. But, 2SLGTQIA2S+-focused organizations have so much on their plate that this may not be on their radar. So as well as contacting legislatures, reach out to 2SLGTQIA2S+-focused orgs, try to get them involved, and brief them on the issues.
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Thanks for getting the word out about this @Em0nM4stodon ! @Paulatics do you know the timeframe for likely action on the Canadian online harms bill?
We just successfully prevented the Washington state legislature from passing several age verification laws, so it certainly can be done! A couple of key takeaways:
- The letter from a coalition of 90 organizations dedicated to LGBTQ+ rights, abortion access, rights for youth, privacy, and freedom of speech has a great summary of the harms of these technologies:
"For vulnerable communities, a biometric scan or an ID upload can serve as a huge obstacle, especially for low-income, unhoused, and undocumented people who already have to navigate an increasingly digital world, with less access to tech tools."
Online ID Checks Censor Abortion Information Age-Verification Laws Seek to Erase LGBTQ+ Identity from the Internet are also good at highlighting harms to vulnerable users.
Discord is the poster child for age verification's privacy problems. Discord Breach Sparks Age Verification & Third-Party Privacy Concerns highlights the risks of hackers getting at age verification data. Discord's age verification rollout has ties to Palantir co-founder and panopticon architect Peter Thiel Hackers Expose Age-Verification Software Powering Surveillance Web highlights how broadly age verification vendors share the data. US laws typically have clauses that put some limits on retention and sharing but in practice they're not enough.
Lobbyists have succeeded in convincing legislators that age estimation software works well ... but actually it doesn't. Error rates are high, and higher for people of color; and people. As a result, even if the vendor claims they're using some fancy-shmancy approach involving biometrics or selfies, in practice a lot of people have to send in their government IDs (with all the aspects of fraud that involves). My [updated written testimony for Appropriations[(https://privacy.thenexus.today/hb-1834-approps/#updated-written-testimony) discusses this, based on the data from the Australian Age Assurance Technology Trial (search for "You've probably heard lobbyists and vendors talk about how accurate today's age systems are, but reality begs to differ") and also talks about the privacy issues.
@eff's Why Isn’t Online Age Verification Just Like Showing Your ID In Person? counters one of the most common talking points of age verification proponents (although, I'm not sure how effective it is, so it might be worth taking another crack at this).
It's critical to highlight age verification's impact on 2SLGBTQIA_ communities. But, 2SLGTQIA2S+-focused organizations have so much on their plate that this may not be on their radar. So as well as contacting legislatures, reach out to 2SLGTQIA2S+-focused orgs, try to get them involved, and brief them on the issues.
@jdp23 @Paulatics @eff This is an amazing summary filled with very helpful resources to fight against age-verification policies. Thank you so much for this Jon
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@jdp23 @Paulatics @eff This is an amazing summary filled with very helpful resources to fight against age-verification policies. Thank you so much for this Jon
@Em0nM4stodon Glad it's useful! Once I recover from the leg session (which ends today) I'm planning on doing a more detailed writeup but it seemed timely to share something about this right now
Feel free to use any of this stuff If you do somethig for Privacy Guides on age verification activism ... and/or, happy to talk more about what did and didn't work here (realizing that it doesn't necessarily generalize). @mtec probably also has some good perspectives on trying to fight similar legislation in a very different political climate.
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Thanks for getting the word out about this @Em0nM4stodon ! @Paulatics do you know the timeframe for likely action on the Canadian online harms bill?
We just successfully prevented the Washington state legislature from passing several age verification laws, so it certainly can be done! A couple of key takeaways:
- The letter from a coalition of 90 organizations dedicated to LGBTQ+ rights, abortion access, rights for youth, privacy, and freedom of speech has a great summary of the harms of these technologies:
"For vulnerable communities, a biometric scan or an ID upload can serve as a huge obstacle, especially for low-income, unhoused, and undocumented people who already have to navigate an increasingly digital world, with less access to tech tools."
Online ID Checks Censor Abortion Information Age-Verification Laws Seek to Erase LGBTQ+ Identity from the Internet are also good at highlighting harms to vulnerable users.
Discord is the poster child for age verification's privacy problems. Discord Breach Sparks Age Verification & Third-Party Privacy Concerns highlights the risks of hackers getting at age verification data. Discord's age verification rollout has ties to Palantir co-founder and panopticon architect Peter Thiel Hackers Expose Age-Verification Software Powering Surveillance Web highlights how broadly age verification vendors share the data. US laws typically have clauses that put some limits on retention and sharing but in practice they're not enough.
Lobbyists have succeeded in convincing legislators that age estimation software works well ... but actually it doesn't. Error rates are high, and higher for people of color; and people. As a result, even if the vendor claims they're using some fancy-shmancy approach involving biometrics or selfies, in practice a lot of people have to send in their government IDs (with all the aspects of fraud that involves). My [updated written testimony for Appropriations[(https://privacy.thenexus.today/hb-1834-approps/#updated-written-testimony) discusses this, based on the data from the Australian Age Assurance Technology Trial (search for "You've probably heard lobbyists and vendors talk about how accurate today's age systems are, but reality begs to differ") and also talks about the privacy issues.
@eff's Why Isn’t Online Age Verification Just Like Showing Your ID In Person? counters one of the most common talking points of age verification proponents (although, I'm not sure how effective it is, so it might be worth taking another crack at this).
It's critical to highlight age verification's impact on 2SLGBTQIA_ communities. But, 2SLGTQIA2S+-focused organizations have so much on their plate that this may not be on their radar. So as well as contacting legislatures, reach out to 2SLGTQIA2S+-focused orgs, try to get them involved, and brief them on the issues.
@jdp23 @Em0nM4stodon @eff The Online Harms bill is still gestating; no sense yet of when it might emerge. On the other hand, Bill S-209, which would require proof of age 18 to access porn finished at committee today and will come back to the Senate in two weeks. (It is not govt legislation, but rather the Senate equivalent of a private member’s bill. We call them Senate Public Bills.)
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@jdp23 @Em0nM4stodon @eff The Online Harms bill is still gestating; no sense yet of when it might emerge. On the other hand, Bill S-209, which would require proof of age 18 to access porn finished at committee today and will come back to the Senate in two weeks. (It is not govt legislation, but rather the Senate equivalent of a private member’s bill. We call them Senate Public Bills.)
@Paulatics If it were about kids, there would be a push to get media literacy in schools. Age verification is dangerous to everyone, its implementation is only a variety of privacy violations. When kids were getting into their father’s or uncle’s porn magazines, no one was searching homes looking for these stashes to protect the children. Kids will be curious, so also make good sex ed mandatory in schools. @jdp23 @Em0nM4stodon @eff
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@Paulatics If it were about kids, there would be a push to get media literacy in schools. Age verification is dangerous to everyone, its implementation is only a variety of privacy violations. When kids were getting into their father’s or uncle’s porn magazines, no one was searching homes looking for these stashes to protect the children. Kids will be curious, so also make good sex ed mandatory in schools. @jdp23 @Em0nM4stodon @eff
@CStamp
@Paulatics @jdp23 @Em0nM4stodon @effsame as substance abuse, same as homelessness - its not about helping anyone its about making the problem less visible so it doesn't seem like there's a problem. See, problem gone, it must be solved right?
On the plus side, age verification will make our kids a LOT more tech saavy trying to get around it, spoof it or fake it. Not to mention a cottage industry of of-age ppl farming their IDs out so kids can post on Tik-tok or whatever.
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@CStamp
@Paulatics @jdp23 @Em0nM4stodon @effsame as substance abuse, same as homelessness - its not about helping anyone its about making the problem less visible so it doesn't seem like there's a problem. See, problem gone, it must be solved right?
On the plus side, age verification will make our kids a LOT more tech saavy trying to get around it, spoof it or fake it. Not to mention a cottage industry of of-age ppl farming their IDs out so kids can post on Tik-tok or whatever.
@tezoatlipoca And make things harder for those less tech savvy, such as older people. They are already targets for fraud. @Paulatics @jdp23 @Em0nM4stodon @eff
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@CStamp
@Paulatics @jdp23 @Em0nM4stodon @effsame as substance abuse, same as homelessness - its not about helping anyone its about making the problem less visible so it doesn't seem like there's a problem. See, problem gone, it must be solved right?
On the plus side, age verification will make our kids a LOT more tech saavy trying to get around it, spoof it or fake it. Not to mention a cottage industry of of-age ppl farming their IDs out so kids can post on Tik-tok or whatever.
@tezoatlipoca @CStamp @Paulatics @jdp23 @Em0nM4stodon @eff that is a very savvy comment
