Hackers Had a Live Feed of Every ID Verification Company Scanned for over a Year
This article discusses the inherent privacy risks associated with mandatory ID verification systems, citing recent data breaches as evidence that such measures are inherently insecure. The author argues that the push for age verification for child safety is misguided because it creates new, unnecessary vulnerabilities for personal data.
Why it matters
It highlights the ongoing tension between digital security and government-mandated identity verification, questioning the efficacy of current safety policies.
Last year, Eric Goldman wrote the definitive piece on how all of these technologies — no matter what they tell you — are huge privacy risks, but people are still living in denial.
We’ve been living with data breaches of various organizations (DMVs, credit companies, the federal government etc) for well over the past decade. I don’t think people are in denial. They’ve just accepted that’s part of modern life. And the examples here prove it, with stuff like Hertz. This isn’t the first breach, it won’t be the last.
Stuff like age verification for social media is new, but needing an ID to rent a car (in their ancient systems) has been a thing since forever. And comes with the same risks.
Anyway, each time we highlight a breach people play it down and insist that mandating age verification is perfectly safe and nothing to worry about.
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