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Hackers Expose The Massive Surveillance Stack Hiding Inside Your “Age Verification” Check
(www.techdirt.com)
this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2026
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Yeah, steam determines that someone is an adult if they have a credit card on their account. This seems like a simple and effective method. Although I do still sometimes have an 'Are you over 18?' query, maybe that's from individual games.
good example that works well on a data minimisation basis when they the need is for some indication of age appropriated trust. There are limits to it though. - to actually satisfy age-gates/verification they would also need to tie your identity to the ownership of the card, and ensure the card isn't some kind of under 18 prepaid affair.
Prepaid cards have numbers that identify them.
If we imposed rules that only adults can use regular cards and kids can use the equivalent of a child card, which is available at all major card issuers, this entire problem could be solved by the banks that already use KYC for basically the same reason.
But that wouldnt get us closer to palantirs one world government so it isnt an option