Discord has announced that it's rolling out age verification checks globally from March – and the decision has sparked fury from many privacy-conscious users.
Because it’s like asking you for an ID to purchase alcohol. And you’re standing there with a full beard, some wrinkles in your skin and having an aged look. It’s insulting.
But I guess you wouldn’t know that because OMGVALVE!!
Oh no, I pissed off the angry little children and their alts. What won’t I do? :(
Tangential, but if it is enforced (alchohol has good reason to do so) it should be enforced impartially regardless of how you look, otherwise it’s discrimination. My comment is based on my Asian looking experience.
so… you do want face verification for online interactions?
edit:
In-person, for a “regulated” substance - it seems reasonable to require that proof be checked as part of policy, regardless of appearance. There’s no storage (in most cases) and the cashier is the only one who looks at the ID and they are supposed to do it to keep their job. The only place I’ve seen recently where your ID is actually tracked is stuff like sudafed, where buying too much makes you a potential meth maker.
Online, the rule has been “trust me, bro” forever. There’s no person testing you, aside from maybe a paywall to ensure you have a credit card as an age check. Steam is doing the online equivalent of minimal validation and minimal retention that the booze store is.
Anytime they scan your id the information is stored. They know you went into that store and bought alcohol. If you think they aren’t storing that information, I’ve an exciting investment opportunity for you.
It doesn’t matter if the schlepps at the store don’t see the information stored and don’t retain a record, obviously they wouldn’t.
I hear that. My local ABC store doesn’t scan my ID, though I don’t see a future where they don’t eventually scan every time; and my local grocery store scans occasionally, but not always.
I can’t just not buy age-verified products, though, because sometimes it’s cold medicine or a prescription. **
Back to the original thread, this is not a Discord problem, this is a privacy problem. We need to push back on data capture in general and tell legislators that privacy is important to all people, even those who buy booze.
** could we make little sneaky stickers that obfuscate the barcode enough to prevent it scanning? The cashier would likely revert to visual inspection without the data retention: face matches photo, age is good, override.
Because it’s like asking you for an ID to purchase alcohol. And you’re standing there with a full beard, some wrinkles in your skin and having an aged look. It’s insulting.
But I guess you wouldn’t know that because OMGVALVE!!
Oh no, I pissed off the angry little children and their alts. What won’t I do? :(
Tangential, but if it is enforced (alchohol has good reason to do so) it should be enforced impartially regardless of how you look, otherwise it’s discrimination. My comment is based on my Asian looking experience.
so… you do want face verification for online interactions?
edit: In-person, for a “regulated” substance - it seems reasonable to require that proof be checked as part of policy, regardless of appearance. There’s no storage (in most cases) and the cashier is the only one who looks at the ID and they are supposed to do it to keep their job. The only place I’ve seen recently where your ID is actually tracked is stuff like sudafed, where buying too much makes you a potential meth maker.
Online, the rule has been “trust me, bro” forever. There’s no person testing you, aside from maybe a paywall to ensure you have a credit card as an age check. Steam is doing the online equivalent of minimal validation and minimal retention that the booze store is.
This is hardly OMGVALVE.
Anytime they scan your id the information is stored. They know you went into that store and bought alcohol. If you think they aren’t storing that information, I’ve an exciting investment opportunity for you.
It doesn’t matter if the schlepps at the store don’t see the information stored and don’t retain a record, obviously they wouldn’t.
I hear that. My local ABC store doesn’t scan my ID, though I don’t see a future where they don’t eventually scan every time; and my local grocery store scans occasionally, but not always.
I can’t just not buy age-verified products, though, because sometimes it’s cold medicine or a prescription. **
Back to the original thread, this is not a Discord problem, this is a privacy problem. We need to push back on data capture in general and tell legislators that privacy is important to all people, even those who buy booze.
** could we make little sneaky stickers that obfuscate the barcode enough to prevent it scanning? The cashier would likely revert to visual inspection without the data retention: face matches photo, age is good, override.