Get ready to have to have your face scanned to visit websites in California.

[Nevilledog]

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Mike Masnick
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Aug 29, 2022
@mmasnick
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Apparently not a SINGLE CALIFORNIA SENATOR voted against the dangerous #CAKidsCode. This is bad and will do massive damage. Shameful.

Newsom can veto, but looks like CA Leg can overturn the veto and waste a ton of taxpayer money fighting this unconstitutional mess

Keir Lamont
@keir_lamont
Today AB 2273, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code passed the state senate by a vote of 30-0. The assembly unanimously passed an earlier version of the bill back in May.
Text: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2273…
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Mike Masnick
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Get ready to have to have your face scanned to visit websites in California.

techdirt.com
Age Verification Providers Say Don’t Worry About California Design Code; You’ll Just Have To Scan...
If you thought cookie pop-ups were an annoying nuisance, just wait until you have to scan your face for some third party to “verify your age” after California’s new design code be…
6:12 PM · Aug 29, 2022

https://www.techdirt.com/2022/08/29/age-verification-providers-say-dont-worry-about-california-design-code-youll-just-have-to-scan-your-face-for-every-website-you-visit/

If you thought cookie pop-ups were an annoying nuisance, just wait until you have to scan your face for some third party to “verify your age” after California’s new design code becomes law.

On Friday, I wrote about the companies and organizations most likely to benefit from California’s AB 2273, the “Age Appropriate Design Code” bill that the California legislature seems eager to pass (and which they refer to as the “Kid’s Code” even though the details show it will impact everyone, and not just kids). The bill seemed to be getting very little attention, but after a few of my posts started to go viral, the backers of the bill ramped up their smear campaigns and lies — including telling me that I’m not covered by it (and when I dug in and pointed out how I am… they stopped responding). But, even if somehow Techdirt is not covered (which, frankly, would be a relief), I can still be quite concerned about how it will impact everyone else.

But, the craziest of all things is that the “Age Verification Providers Association” decided to show up in the comments to defend themselves and insist that their members can do age verification in a privacy-protective manner. You just have to let them scan your face with facial recognition technology.

Really.

I’m not kidding:

First, we want to reassure you and your readers generally about anonymity. The purpose of the online age verification sector is to allow users to prove their age to a website, WITHOUT disclosing their identity.

This can be achieved in a number of ways, but primarily through the use of independent, third-party AV providers who do not retain centrally any of your personal data. Once they have established your age or age-range, they have no need (and under EU GDPR law, therefore no legal basis) to retain your personal data.

In fact, the AV provider may not have needed to access your personal data at all. Age estimation based on facial analysis, for example, could take place on your own device, as can reading and validating your physical ID.

*snip*

[live love laugh]

1. Coming to a state near you ...

[hunter]

2. I'd need a camera for that, no?

I'll be curious to see how this works out.

My twelve year old self, who still lives inside me, is gleefully thinking up ways of getting around this.

[Talitha]

3. I taped a paper over my laptop's camera.

And there's a dab of blue-tack plugging the microphone.
Looks like CA will have to get along without me.

TBH though, that's a pretty bad way to 'determine' a person's age, especially for those of us who have never looked their age. Heck, when I was 43 someone thought I was my 17 year old son's girlfriend.

[sprinkleeninow]

6. I got carded at a grocery store not that long ago. 🤔

🤣

[dalton99a]

4. When a tech company says "We want to reassure you generally about anonymity," TRUST THEM

The fuckers really mean it.

NOT

[haele]

5. It sounds "ID.me", but on a larger scale.

Sort of a biometrics recognition process. My question is, will you be required to scan both your face and a CA picture I.D. like "Identify Me" does, and subsequently scan your face to get onto the website in question?

There's a lot more questions I have on what they propose to do with the data they may be able to get with this.

Haele

[Hermit-The-Prog]

7. Moon 'em.