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Will we have to choose between privacy-friendly Linux distros vs legal Linux distros? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by pglpm@lemmy.ca to c/linux@lemmy.world

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/62278765

Software changes for compliance with age-verification laws are being pushed a bit everywhere in Linux-development; for example:

In Systemd, already merged.

In xdg.desktop.portal (a portal frontend service for Flatpak and other desktop containment frameworks), still open.

In Arch Linux, still open.

In Freedesktop.org, still open.

It's interesting that it's the same small group of people behind these pull requests, and that discussion threads in them have been locked owing to a great amount of negative criticisms.

They say "we have to comply with the law". Which also means that if "the law" in the future will require proper verification, handling to 3rd-parties, or whatnot, then they will comply.

Well, it's their right to. They don't owe anything to anyone, and are under no obligation to report to users or to the community, nor to pay heed to anybody's wishes.

If things proceed in this direction, we users may at some point have to choose between privacy-friendly Linux distributions or legal Linux distributions. People who, like me, are worried, need to start thinking about concrete actions to take before it's too late: where to develop such distros? which channels to download and distribute them from? And so on. (And of course, more generally we need to write and protest to politicians, organize protest marches, go on strike, refuse to comply...)

It's good to remind to those who keep on repeating the words "legal" and "illegal" that for example Nelson Mandela was, technically speaking, a criminal who did and promoted illegal activity. This happens when laws become immoral.

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[–] gian@lemmy.grys.it 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

So, I can see where commercial OSes, like Windows and MacOS, but maybe including Chrome, Red Hat, and similar, would welcome the requirement to collect user ages. Another piece of user data for telemetry, ad serving, etc, with the cover of ‘government made me do it.’

Except that maybe they are smart enough to understand that there is no way to be sure that the date is accurate and so you have an high possibility to profile the user in the wrong category.

[–] tburkhol@lemmy.world 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

If the birthdate field is just a random number, then I don't see why anyone cares - it would have less personally identifying information than the MAC address. I thought the whole reason people are up in arms about this is the proposal/hypothetical where the OS is required to validate that field against government ID databases, thus giving a third party - the OS vendor or whatever contractor performs the validation - a link to real world identity of any computer user.

[–] gian@lemmy.grys.it 1 points 1 day ago

If the birthdate field is just a random number, then I don’t see why anyone cares - it would have less personally identifying information than the MAC address.

True.

I thought the whole reason people are up in arms about this is the proposal/hypothetical where the OS is required to validate that field against government ID databases, thus giving a third party - the OS vendor or whatever contractor performs the validation - a link to real world identity of any computer user.

I agree, but in the end it is nothing new in a professional environment.

For example in Italy (but I suppose in EU as well), my employer already know my birth date since I am required by law to undergo a medical examination at regular intervals (with the interval depending on the work and age), so this information is already stored in some way and it need to be correct, my company get fined if I am not checked when required. Having it in systemd or in active directory or any other user management system make no difference.

The problem would arise if there will not be any option to avoid the check, but again, in some countries you cannot ask anything you don't need to offer the service, and I am pretty sure that the birth date is not necessary to setup an user account on my personal home pc.