[xclouded1]

Well, it's official, the Online Safety act is here, for Americans/other who are unaware what's going on, essentially most sites, including all sites in the UK will need strict ID verification.

Now the reason for this apparently from our Government is to protect Children's safety, however this is simply a front for much more malicious uses. We have the worst Government in years, the UK is now a total surveillance state and we have no freedom of speech anymore, Police spend all their resources arresting those with reasonable balanced opinions online while real crime in the UK is going totally unchecked.

It's already all over X, they are using this for far more purposes than what was originally promised, Wikipedia and historical research and data is also being restricted, in most cases, for almost entirely unknown reasons other than complete censorship, this isn't about Porn, this is about having more and more control over the people.

https://x.com/search?q=%22Online%20Safet...cal=trends
Feel free to take a look yourself. 😵

[DramaKing]

All websites? Non-UK sites? Well, it's not like the country ever had freedom of speech.

[Oh_Well]

I honestly believed that this is something America would do first.

Growing up in the Balkans, I don't think I ever want to live in the US/UK, knowing that my every move (digital or not) is being monitored and stored somewhere.

Here in the Balkans, the most advanced facial recognition software is the old people on their balconies

[xclouded1]

All websites? Non-UK sites? Well, it's not like the country ever had freedom of speech.

Yes, the content isn't specific to a certain site, and that's the awful thing, it can apply to anything "adult" like, but they are trying to block Wikipedia too, lawsuits will follow.

For us, any website regardless of location, I now have to use an American VPN just to browse freely, this is INSANE from the UK, over 300k signatures for the petition to end it already, it's barbaric.

---

I honestly believed that this is something America would do first.

Growing up in the Balkans, I don't think I ever want to live in the US/UK, knowing that my every move (digital or not) is being monitored and stored somewhere.

Here in the Balkans, the most advanced facial recognition software is the old people on their balconies

The crazy thing is that the Data is outsourced all around the world, so we have no say or voting power about where or what happens with the data, it's truly evil and corrupt.

[DramaKing]

Yes, the content isn't specific to a certain site, and that's the awful thing, it can apply to anything "adult" like, but they are trying to block Wikipedia too, lawsuits will follow.

For us, any website regardless of location, I now have to use an American VPN just to browse freely, this is INSANE from the UK, over 300k signatures for the petition to end it already, it's barbaric.

---

The crazy thing is that the Data is outsourced all around the world, so we have no say or voting power about where or what happens with the data, it's truly evil and corrupt.

Have to trust that any service verifying identity, processes and stores it in a GDPR-compliant manner. 😋

[xclouded1]

Have to trust that any service verifying identity, processes and stores it in a GDPR-compliant manner. 😋

That's the thing, it's not compliant in any way or held to any standard, just uses a simple AI detection and then sends the data to foreign offshore servers that the British people cannot research, or even find out anything about the servers (even if they wanted to), they use several third party hosts which is extremely dodgy and a betrayal to British democracy

[skull]

Hopefully they do it in a good manner.

In Denmark we have ID verification on certain things, online purchase of tobacco/alcohol and gambling.

This is built by the government, we have a mobile app to login. Each site have to apply for access and explain what they need.

In most cases, they will be granted only a unique non-personal identifier - not a social security number, and unique for each site.

This identifier can be stored as a login token, used to identify the user. They are in most cases not granted access to your information, they can ask for certain additional permissions, some examples:

- Age verification: If granted, the website will know wether the user is under or above the legal requirement for their purpose. Still without sharing birthday or age.

- Various listing check: If granted, they can check wether or not the user is in a unpaying-customer list, or restricted-from-gambling etc.

- ID: Rarely granted, used for banks etc, that needs full ID read access, they will be granted access to temporary read the ID, to verify further details before the access is removed, where they could request the user for re-access once needed.

Later, if government needs it, they can use this identifier on the target website to later identify the person - meanwhile the website doesn’t have any information besides the random unique identifier.

The best thing is, you don’t share personal data or ID with just any site, only a identifier, that when leaked, tells nothing about you.

But I doubt they have time to do such - seems to me that UK is in a rush to get something done, without thinking about the consequences.

[xclouded1]

Hopefully they do it in a good manner.

In Denmark we have ID verification on certain things, online purchase of tobacco/alcohol and gambling.

This is built by the government, we have a mobile app to login. Each site have to apply for access and explain what they need.

In most cases, they will be granted only a unique non-personal identifier - not a social security number, and unique for each site.

This identifier can be stored as a login token, used to identify the user. They are in most cases not granted access to your information, they can ask for certain additional permissions, some examples:

- Age verification: If granted, the website will know wether the user is under or above the legal requirement for their purpose. Still without sharing birthday or age.

- Various listing check: If granted, they can check wether or not the user is in a unpaying-customer list, or restricted-from-gambling etc.

- ID: Rarely granted, used for banks etc, that needs full ID read access, they will be granted access to temporary read the ID, to verify further details before the access is removed, where they could request the user for re-access once needed.

Later, if government needs it, they can use this identifier on the target website to later identify the person - meanwhile the website doesn’t have any information besides the random unique identifier.

The best thing is, you don’t share personal data or ID with just any site, only a identifier, that when leaked, tells nothing about you.

But I doubt they have time to do such - seems to me that UK is in a rush to get something done, without thinking about the consequences.

Mmm, thanks for the response

I imagine the difference is that Denmark has a secure, centralized network to contain and use this data, rather than sending it to foreign countries abroad to verify, and that your Government is totally responsible of the data which is a good thing in retrospect as they can be blamed directly if anything malignant happens.

"In most cases, they will be granted only a unique non-personal identifier - not a social security number, and unique for each site."

Does it require FaceID, what identification does it need to verify?

"But I doubt they have time to do such - seems to me that UK is in a rush to get something done, without thinking about the consequences."

I follow British Politics closely, and it's not a rush at all, this has been long planned and has been rumored for many years to be a worrying policy designed solely for control and surveillance. The new Government are quite facists, they hate anyone with differing opinions to their own, they have jailed many people for just speaking mostly the truth, it's a hellish situation here, also, we are also on the verge of Civil War in this country, it's that bad.

Also, this verification ID has been popping up everywhere, even normal factual historical topics are banned, it's unbelievable, I never thought I would see it, the thing is... It goes far beyond just an ID verification service, this is our data being sent to random companies over simple searched, Reddit, X, FB, every news/porn site, Wikipedia plans to sue as they have been blocked on many of their webpages for "content that can't be viewed without complete ID verification.

The petition of repeal the online safety act has now 309,000 signatures as it stands, and it was only released yesterday.

[skull]

I imagine the difference is that Denmark has a secure, centralized network to contain and use this data, rather than sending it to foreign countries abroad to verify, and that your Government is totally responsible of the data which is a good thing in retrospect as they can be blamed directly if anything malignant happens.

Yes we keep all our data and infrastructure within the country.

"In most cases, they will be granted only a unique non-personal identifier - not a social security number, and unique for each site."

Does it require FaceID, what identification does it need to verify?

The app first requires manually verification by government, with users scanning their passport.

Afterwards, the will be forced to use Face ID, fingerprint or password. Password is option when the others are not available.

Then once you have to login to a service implementing the government authentication, a QR will show up, that we scan with the app.
The app sends a response to the government API, if the QR code is identified, a few round of real time QR changes will show, changing from one code to another - identifying potential man-in-the-middle delays. Quite a interesting approach.

"But I doubt they have time to do such - seems to me that UK is in a rush to get something done, without thinking about the consequences."

I follow British Politics closely, and it's not a rush at all, this has been long planned and has been rumored for many years to be a worrying policy designed solely for control and surveillance. The new Government are quite facists, they hate anyone with differing opinions to their own, they have jailed many people for just speaking mostly the truth, it's a hellish situation here, also, we are also on the verge of Civil War in this country, it's that bad.

Hopefully you guys will be able to then setup some good secure approach without having to share your password with anyone - just to get access.
But it’s quite a shame that it’s to censor your people - rather than positively impact like we do. We don’t enforce it on social media, blogs, or anything of that kind, we only donut where legal restrictions are common - gambling, banking, money transfers, etc.
I can understand people are protesting against it, however a civil war is never the answer. Sorry for your situation.

Also, this verification ID has been popping up everywhere, even normal factual historical topics are banned, it's unbelievable, I never thought I would see it, the thing is... It goes far beyond just an ID verification service, this is our data being sent to random companies over simple searched, Reddit, X, FB, every news/porn site, Wikipedia plans to sue as they have been blocked on many of their webpages for "content that can't be viewed without complete ID verification.

Well, that’s against free speech and free expression. Sounds more and more like some Asian countries trying to change everyone’s perspective by censoring anything that goes against it.
Hopefully it will be resolve, cause censorship in this extend does no good.

Best of luck, sounds like a lot…

[immeiron]

Hopefully they do it in a good manner.

reddit now requires UK citizens to provide ID
this is far from good

[skull]

reddit now requires UK citizens to provide ID
this is far from good

Okay, that’s just stupid - if I may be so bold.
Once again I’m happy to not live in UK, seems to be going downhill these past years

[xclouded1]

Okay, that’s just stupid - if I may be so bold.
Once again I’m happy to not live in UK, seems to be going downhill these past years

I'll respond to your other message just woke up and tired as hell, but honestly, I used to love the UK, was a beacon of freedom but now has turned into hell for a long time now, but this Government is the worst in history.

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Okay, that’s just stupid - if I may be so bold.
Once again I’m happy to not live in UK, seems to be going downhill these past years

I'm seriously considering moving to America also

[Undead]

They're doing this to prepare you for the digital ID that's going to be brought in soon. After that point you're basically a collared slave with nowhere to hide. The UK is the head of the snake, everything evil has originated from there.

[xclouded1]

They're doing this to prepare you for the digital ID that's going to be brought in soon. After that point you're basically a collared slave with nowhere to hide. The UK is the head of the snake, everything evil has originated from there.

100%, I can't argue with this at all lol

[DramaKing]

I'll respond to your other message just woke up and tired as hell, but honestly, I used to love the UK, was a beacon of freedom but now has turned into hell for a long time now, but this Government is the worst in history.

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I'm seriously considering moving to America also

California will probably follow the UK's lead on a lot of things. So far the courts usually block the pro-censorsjip politicians, though.