When Age Gating Puts User Privacy at Risk
Many countries have begun implementing laws around online age verification, with the goal of keeping youth safe from adult content. However, the lack of informed discussion about the risks to privacy and security could leave adults and youth alike in unexpectedly vulnerable positions. For example, Canada’s Bill S-209, “An Act to Restrict Young Persons’ Online Access to Pornographic Material,” claims that “age-verification and age-estimation technology […] can now effectively ascertain the age of users without breaching their privacy rights.” Unfortunately, user privacy is taken for granted in age-gating legislation without proper substantiation of the assumptions made about technological efficacy and privacy protection, and real-world implementation.
Related Knowledge Center: Digital privacy and data security
If you’re online, you’re generating a constant stream of information about yourself — sometimes voluntarily, sometimes unwittingly — that is assembled and used to craft your online experience. And generate wealth for data brokers. Meanwhile, designers and managers of the digital infrastructure on which the world depends are engaged in a never-ending effort to thwart attempts, by both criminal enterprises and state actors, to exploit vulnerabilities in those systems.
Signalgate | State surveillance