Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit
knorker | on: European "age verification" "app" forcing everyone to use Android or iOS
Funny you use Netherlands as a good example, considering that famously, their existing unusually thorough registry was super helpful for the Nazis rounding up jews later.

I don't think it's Godwin's Law when you are so spot on, exactly describing the worst case.

trashb | parent | next
Additionally there was a leak of the personal information of covid patients, the official tracking app was not affected as far as I can tell.

However even if the app is secure the storage and handling of the information is a different matter and it has been shown that care is not always taken.

tikkabhuna | parent | next
Why would an age verification app need to know your ethnicity/religion?

Governments likely already know your name, age, place of birth, so having an app with a standard API for verifying users isn't giving the government additional data.

snottynose | root | parent | next
It is one extra attack vector. There is a data leak reported every week, and it is now apparent we cannot trust any organization to handle any datum securely, at all. It has gotten to the point where I now consider every piece of information compromised and sold on the dark web as soon as I am forced to transfer it to a third party. Because those are the odds.
kspacewalk2 | root | parent | next
Doing absolutely everything useful with that data is "one extra attack vector". That is not any kind of a persuasive argument in itself.
soco | root | parent
It's also replacing all the personal information stores from thousand applications and websites you have previously registered, or would have to. So arguably it's thousand attack vectors less.
loading story #48911770
lstodd | root | parent
"government" age verification app will be made and maintan ed by some corp anyways.

so it will gather extra data, sell it sideways and leak like hell. (as they already do with all the data they already have)

roundabout-host | root | parent | next
Since it requires Android or iOS, Google/Apple can gather the same data too.
lstodd | root | parent
They did this from the beginning, still one can not cease trying to limit the exposure.
alistairSH | root | parent
I'm imagining something like recreation.gov in the US - it's the portal for booking campsites and other activities at national parks. It's run by BAH at great profit - most of the fees we pay aren't going to the national park service, it almost all goes to our corporate overlords.
snottynose | parent | next
Not necessary to hearken back so far in history. In our present age the intelligence services consistently do not respect privacy rights of citizens, even when they are legally bound to.

https://www-bitsoffreedom-nl.translate.goog/2026/07/06/aivd-...

knorker | root | parent
Sure, but the poster was not just wrong, but wrong like "peace in our time" wrong. "Adolf? What a charming name" wrong.

Amusingly fantastically wrong.

NL may have its own issues like you linked to, but more uniquely had their collected data abused more than other countries in probably the worst event in history.

loading story #48907178