Hello,
I was gonna post this on Ask Lemmy, but then I thought maybe Technology would be a better fit for the theme. But then I saw it's mostly news, so I thought perhaps Ask Lemmy would indeed be a better fit. If this is not the case, please point me to the right direction.
As a heads-up, I am not 'Murican, and never been to 'Murica, so keep that in mind.
Seeing the recent news with France trying to age-restrict pornographic material online, I was wondering and have sort of an idea, that I wonder if it is actually doable and actually good.
Hear me out: the gobermint likely already has your data, right? At least stuff like name, date of birth, etc. The gobirment could have a private and secure service, which websites and services could use to confirm certain requirements.
For instance: A website wants to confirm if you're over 18. The website essentially asks the official gob. service, "is this user at least 18 years of age?". The official gob. service essentially has to answer "yes, your requirements are met" or "no, your requirements are not met", without giving away information on a person. The user gets prompted, being told what information is being required and whether they wish to share that. The official service wouldn't know where the request is coming from, but the original website requesting the information generates and shows a temporary code, which is not related to the website at all and is sent to the gob. service, so that the user can confirm it is indeed the website they were using that is requesting this, and not a hijack of some kind. The gob. service, if allowed by the user, sends out this confirmation to the original website, without the gob. service knowing the website and without the website knowing the user's info. The website then knows whether their requirements are met and can then act accordingly, such as by not allowing someone to access adult material if they do not meet the age requirement.
Does this make sense? Is it doable? Could it be a potential private and secure way of confirming user information without either party having access to the other's information? Obviously, the idea could be worked on and polished, but as a starting point.
Edit: so, what I'm gathering from comments here:
- Som'o'y'all didn't get it (no, you don't got to log in to your porn tube of choice with an official gob. account)
- This cannot be done
- This could be done
- This is already a thing being worked on
The important thing, if I'm the government, is that this helps me round up and eliminate my political enemies, based on their online activity.
This can be done securely and privately to prevent this. I recommend this approach, to start.
Then after a few months, I can change the implementation to eliminate the privacy.
Then, when I'm ready, I can start blackmailing or arresting folks for their pornography preferences.
Or - if I'm feeling confident - I can keep it simple and just have my secret police throw folks out of third story windows anytime they post anything critical of my governing style.
Overall, if I want to abuse the Internet to hold onto my power using blackmail, terror and murder, online age verification is a great first step, for me.
Folks probably shouldn't elect me, but they may want to consider that I'm not the only one who knows how to do this.
Depends on how you implement it, innit? If the gob. gives you an official certicate confirming something, for instance, which you then save onto your machine and then upload to the website or service. What could the gob. do? Attach a string on the file to pull it back? Unless a file can call home somehow (assume a non-executable file, with info only). They could change how it works later on, and make it work in their favour maliciously, but they'd have to make quite the big change. Plus people might not have as big of a need later, maybe. Assuming it's a once-and-done thing.
I would provide an app to manage the certificate for you, since most people won't know how.
And I would regularly update the app to keep it current and secure. ( I might occasionally add features to make sure ~~I~~... You have the best experience. )
And I would have some very discrete, anonymous and minimal telemetry - just to help me maintain the app.
If I happen to know how to pair that telemetry with other tracking data that I purchase form other sources...maybe I can engage in a tiny bit of strategic blackmail...and well...you shouldn't elect me.