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Why does everyone suddenly want your ID?

It would appear that the most valuable thing you own right now is any form of government-issued ID and tech companies are now going to extraordinary lengths to get a copy of it.

Government mandates to age-gate huge swathes of the content found online have forced the hands of many "big tech" platforms. In Australia, as of December, YouTube will need to verify that users are over 16 years of age in order to gain full access to the content and services that platform provides.

Likewise for Facebook, Instagram and most other significant social media sites.

The UK is following suit and in the USA, individual states are also demanding age-gating of some types of content.

However, some platforms are going above and beyond the legal requirements and coming up with their own innovative ways to force you to upload a government-issued ID document.

Take YouTube for example...

They have voluntarily implemented age-gating in the USA by having their AI systems determine if an account appears to be used by a minor and then requiring them to prove otherwise if the determination is incorrect.

How can a user falsely categorised as a minor prove they're not?

Well they can upload their government-issued ID and have it compared to images captured from a live camera image.

That however, is not enough for YouTube because many accounts won't be mis-identified -- so they have come up with an even better idea.

They've launched a service that will scan videos on the platform for deepfake replicas of you and report matches so that you can request a takedown.

This is actually a solution to the problem they have created in the first place. VEO3, the generative AI system built into the YouTube platform can in theory allow you to deepfake anyone and include that footage in your videos -- so now they offer a way to detect such deepfakes.

Of course in order to use this deepfake detection service, you have to first submit your government-issued ID.

So call me a cynic but if you are trying to get a copy of everyone's government-issued ID, what better way than to create a problem and then offer a solution that is dependent on handing over your driver's license or passport for Google's archives?

Google already knows the power of profiling someone based on their search and web history, now it would appear that they want to identify you, not just by the cookies on your browser but also by way of linking that to your government-issued ID.

The implications for this are just horrifying!

Once your proven identity is linked to your search and browsing history we enter "Minority Report" territory. Everyone can be carefully profiled and their activities fed into AI systems that will purport to identify those who may be considered highly likely to commit crimes or even engage in "wrong think".

It is highly likely that, in the name of "public safety", Google will be more than happy to work with governments to build a system (for a price) that automatically flags "high risk" individuals so that they can be investigated by police or security forces.

Might this work and actually save lives?

Of course -- but at what cost?

At some stage we have to say that things like privacy are a basic, undeniable human right and that this form of constant surveilance is unacceptable. Society has already adopted the stance that some dangers are acceptable because of the greater good (allowing us to drive on the roads for instance where hundreds are killed every year in NZ alone).

Surely our privacy is such a primal human right that it is worth accepting a little risk in order to safeguard and protect it?

It seems that every day a new step towards total authoritarianism and dystopia is unveiled. I don't like where the world is headed and only hope that this trend is halted before it is too late.

Carpe Diem folks!

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