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.
Linux is never going to have an age verification system. Any distro that implements it will be forked or abandoned. Or both.
Give the politicians who’re pushing this shit a more pressing problem to worry about.
0.- install a old-enough OS into a old-enough machine (basically any Linux from up to ~2025 into a machine of up to ~2021 works) as they support docker and virtualization and you can spin more modern individual programs from there.
Distributed mesh network. Bypass internet by making own.
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.C2) Organize and participate in protest marches, petitions, and strikes against this.
Where can I learn more and get involved?
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.
I get the concern, especially since people who aren’t tech savvy are pretty clueless when it comes to digital privacy, but I don’t know if we’re at the point where the ship has sailed on OS level age verification. At least in the US it seems like this is a fight that’s still worth fighting especially since the majority of the political energy right now is directed towards the concurrent AI and affordability crises (and, on the right wing, toward stoking anti-immigrant and to a much lesser extent anti-trans sentiment). To be fair, I’m pessimistic too and realistically, yes, any sincere effort to upend the power structure will eventually need to take place offline.
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.
I hear ya and obviously I see the value of coordinating online (we wouldn’t be talking otherwise obviously) but many revolutions in history happened without the internet and they can (and likely will) happen again.
From your lips to the Flying Spaghetti Monster’s ears.
