How will we circumvent the coming ID requirements for operating systems?
I am extremely concerned about the new laws that are going to require ID to use any operating system. I know there is an exception for FOSS at the moment, but the phase 2 plans to deny access to web services for unverified devices would essentially make that exception useless.
I’ve been thinking hard about everything my home server connects to, and it isn’t looking good. How will I pull containers from GitHub or DockerHub when those sites will undoubtedly be subject to the same verification rules? How is SearXNG going to work when my users searches are tied to my identity? Put simply, how are we going to get around this as a community?
Ideas I’ve had:
- Hire an anonymous person and use their identity. Problem: if they commit a crime, the authorities could think it was me, and if I’m suspected of a crime, they could be in trouble.
- Figure out a way to route services through a virtual Windows 95 machine since many ATM’s run on that and maybe there would be an exception for them. Problem: my gut tells me that they would also be blocked and that ATM’s make direct connections separate from traditional web services.
- VPN to the safest country possible during setup and pretend to be in a region that doesn’t require identification. Problem: even if the country doesn’t require it, it doesn’t mean that the OS company won’t require it.
- Move to a more reasonable country and go full FOSS for the rest of my life. Problem: leaving everything I know behind and still potentially have blocked access to some sites that deliver FOSS software.
That’s pretty much it. Moving seems like the option with the greatest possibility of success, but it comes at a huge cost. I’d need to change jobs and start my life all over, but on the other hand, my home server is the only thing that makes my poverty tolerable here. If I lose that, then I have literally nothing to do but read books and wait to die.
So, with humility and anxiety, I come to you, my friends with bigger brains than me. What are we going to do? How are we going to remain private and free? What is your personal plan because I’m drawing blanks and starting to feel like everything I’ve ever believed in is crumbling around me.
Thank you for any advice or theories on how to navigate this paradigm shift. I never would have thought, when I first fired up Netscape and got connected to the whole world, that it would come to this before the end of my lifetime.
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Carlos Solís
in reply to WeirdGoesPro • •Privacy reshared this.
WeirdGoesPro
in reply to Carlos Solís • • •Yeah, I had the same realization about Tor: the exit node is the weakness. Also, as we all know, that is sending us back to the Stone Age with the speed which means that accessing content becomes really difficult.
Mirroring packages is a clever idea, but boy howdy that’s a lot of work to manage updates. I’m not totally against doing it, I just feel that pit in my stomach at the understanding that it would mean a huge amount of work to continue operating as I have been, and I have to juggle a job and a semblance of a social life at the same time.
I wish there were two of me—one guy to run the network and another guy to keep us alive and housed.
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wyldrstallyns
in reply to WeirdGoesPro • • •WeirdGoesPro
in reply to wyldrstallyns • • •I know! Women’s rights are great, but the conclusion shouldn’t have been “ok, now you BOTH have to work for the man to support a home, or else you’re screwed.”
One person works for the company, one person works for the family, and it shouldn’t matter which gender does which. Of course, both can work for the company if they want, but making it mandatory is a misery machine.
wyldrstallyns
in reply to WeirdGoesPro • • •FWIW, most religious systems are focused on population control, and that includes birth rate. Females of child-bearing age (some far younger 🤢🤬) being relegated to almost entirely that and defining their existence by that alone.
All gods must die, and their fanatics rehabbed or excised.
MrWrinkles
in reply to WeirdGoesPro • • •WeirdGoesPro
in reply to MrWrinkles • • •MrWrinkles
in reply to WeirdGoesPro • • •like this
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WeirdGoesPro
in reply to MrWrinkles • • •like this
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anamethatisnt
in reply to WeirdGoesPro • • •For floss operating systems someone will inevitably maintain a (potentially illegal) fork/patch that bypasses the age check. The same will be true for repos and flathub, there will be a mirror without verification for most stuff. Just like youtube hasn't been able to smash yt-dlp yet I imagine that there will be bypasses that fake an "adult token" to send to websites.
What we can do is:
... Mostrar mása) Join organizations, eff.org exists and maybe your country has a local organization too?
b) Discuss privacy with friends, we all have things we'd rather keep hidden - a medical journal, a hobby most find childish or a kinky sex toy. That doesn't make us criminal. Encourage them to accept newsletters from eff and similar groups.
c) Question your politicians about their view on privacy, we must make noise for them to care.
d) Submit letters to your local newspaper in regards to privacy. If they publish it that's a win and if they don't then maybe you got a journalist interested enough to write a full article. Someday.
e) Join politics and work inside the system to protect priva
For floss operating systems someone will inevitably maintain a (potentially illegal) fork/patch that bypasses the age check. The same will be true for repos and flathub, there will be a mirror without verification for most stuff. Just like youtube hasn't been able to smash yt-dlp yet I imagine that there will be bypasses that fake an "adult token" to send to websites.
What we can do is:
a) Join organizations, eff.org exists and maybe your country has a local organization too?
b) Discuss privacy with friends, we all have things we'd rather keep hidden - a medical journal, a hobby most find childish or a kinky sex toy. That doesn't make us criminal. Encourage them to accept newsletters from eff and similar groups.
c) Question your politicians about their view on privacy, we must make noise for them to care.
d) Submit letters to your local newspaper in regards to privacy. If they publish it that's a win and if they don't then maybe you got a journalist interested enough to write a full article. Someday.
e) Join politics and work inside the system to protect privacy for everyone.
f) Go offline. Host get-togethers in real life, create regular groups that meet outside the internet, read books, play tabletop games.
g) Become a hermit, plant potatoes, feed the birds. Live far away from town.
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WeirdGoesPro
in reply to anamethatisnt • • •I like option G, lol.
I’m really hoping for the fork/patch because that seems like something that is well enough within my skill range and time availability to manage. Ideally, there will be a dark web mirror available for that kind of thing because I have a funny feeling that VPN’s might be in the crosshairs too.
The worst part is the “save the children” mentality of it all. It gives them license to pursue offenders to the utmost extent because “think of the kids!” It’s hard to get an average person to feel sorry for a big Hollywood studio or Google being unable to sell your data, but when it comes to preventing a kid from seeing a boob, scorched earth methods are immediately authorized and usually approved of in the court of public opinion.
bertlewirth
in reply to WeirdGoesPro • • •stravanasu
in reply to anamethatisnt • • •WeirdGoesPro
in reply to stravanasu • • •frongt
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WeirdGoesPro
in reply to frongt • • •Why wouldn’t it be enforceable with government power behind it?
Currently, in the US, we have garbage trucks looking for code violations, people in concentration camps, AI face tracking at stop lights, and every major digital map in the US displays the Lake of Suck-merica and the Gulf of Suck-merica. There are other countries with massive firewalls preventing access to huge swaths of the internet. I really don’t see how this next move would be outside of their capabilities.
Chaunticleer
in reply to WeirdGoesPro • • •There's a division between state procedure and private possessions there. You can run whatever you want at home and that will never change, you can not take jobs that will require ID on devices (most jobs aren't government jobs), as of now you can use VPN or TOR to get outside America's internet. Be a pest to your representatives to make sure it stays that way
Most of what you're experiencing is an intentionally created climate of doom. It helps quell dissent to make people think it's all out of their control. The map renaming is just theatrics. But the street camera's are real. That's going to take being active in your community in one way or another.
WeirdGoesPro
in reply to Chaunticleer • • •I’m not as worried about the first phase, but the second, where they are talking about limiting access to Google, Apple, and Amazon services (etc.) for non-verified devices is what really concerns me. Do you think those companies will restrict it to the US only and allow a VPN to get around it, or do you think they will see the potential in the ultimate identifier for ads and make it mandatory for all users globally?
At its worst extreme, I could see this being used to identify every user of every device and then potentially use harvested data to deliver targeted and customized propaganda that could circumvent VPN anonymization since they are confident of who the specific device belongs to separate from an IP address it is connecting from. With AI, the ads could even be altered and customized to specifically prey on that individual user’s insecurities and biases. In a political context, this would be the most powerful propaganda weapon ever invented, and the capitalistic value of it would be immense.
Chaunticleer
in reply to WeirdGoesPro • • •Huh. I guess I hadn't thought of that because I don't personally plan on using any Google, Apple, or Amazon services or devices. Kind of already cut most of it out of my life, but for companies that still will insist on having Google support yeah those jobs probably will still demand you give ID to those companies. That will suck.
They kind of already identify people's devices, phones anyway. Canvas tracing is getting most people id'd by correlating the info like how you describe. For marketing and propoganda that might be worth the effort. I think the real cash cow in forcing everyone to use their services will be claiming ownership of any work that gets created using it. Kind of like employers do if you build anything while under a contract.
WeirdGoesPro
in reply to Chaunticleer • • •As I was reading it, this would affect any site that is using Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon (etc.) infrastructure services as well. That covers a huge swath of the internet—GitHub, news sites, eBay…it’s hard to think of a major site that wouldn’t be tangentially connected to one of those mega-providers through ads, hosting, networking, and the rest.
I’m not even considering work computers, I’m talking about my personal server potentially needing ID to download stuff or serve results through SearXNG. The dependency on major service providers extends to so many sites that it is hard to fathom how we could access much of anything other than torrents and Lemmy, and even some Lemmy instances could end up affected depending on how they’ve set up their instance.
I don’t think they’d go to all this trouble if it just meant you couldn’t see the next iPhone on the Apple website—they’re doing this to create an environment where you’d essentially need a license to use the internet…”f
... Mostrar másAs I was reading it, this would affect any site that is using Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon (etc.) infrastructure services as well. That covers a huge swath of the internet—GitHub, news sites, eBay…it’s hard to think of a major site that wouldn’t be tangentially connected to one of those mega-providers through ads, hosting, networking, and the rest.
I’m not even considering work computers, I’m talking about my personal server potentially needing ID to download stuff or serve results through SearXNG. The dependency on major service providers extends to so many sites that it is hard to fathom how we could access much of anything other than torrents and Lemmy, and even some Lemmy instances could end up affected depending on how they’ve set up their instance.
I don’t think they’d go to all this trouble if it just meant you couldn’t see the next iPhone on the Apple website—they’re doing this to create an environment where you’d essentially need a license to use the internet…”for the children.”
Chaunticleer
in reply to WeirdGoesPro • • •WeirdGoesPro
in reply to Chaunticleer • • •kathythegiant
in reply to WeirdGoesPro • • •like this
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WeirdGoesPro
in reply to kathythegiant • • •I feel 100% activated over this. Those fools just radicalized me (more than I already was).
I made a recurring monthly donation to the EFF today, and I made it bigger than any other subscription in my budget.
I live next to a concentration camp for god’s sake. This can’t continue, and you’re right, we need to take it to the streets, but the planning and communication starts online. We need these tools to stay coordinated, and we need people at protests who are ready to take some risks to create change.
Eyes wide open over here. Sign me up. I’d rather go down trying than get slowly crushed under the wheels of capitalism.
kathythegiant
in reply to WeirdGoesPro • • •WeirdGoesPro
in reply to kathythegiant • • •Sergio
in reply to WeirdGoesPro • • •I remember those days. They weren't that bad.
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WeirdGoesPro
in reply to Sergio • • •Sergio
in reply to WeirdGoesPro • • •lambalicious
in reply to WeirdGoesPro • • •far_university1990
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