Privacy

Another layer of secrecy is being stripped from Australian internet users. At a time when users are being forced to and over personal ID data in the name of age verification, it seems that governments will be quick in demanding that internet companies have to hand over such data to them.

It was announced that internet companies will now be forced to reveal the ages of active users supposedly so that the Australian Government can get a grip on the impact these platforms are having on Australian kids.

Last week the Albanese Government announced sweeping reforms intended to boost transparency and accountability for digital platforms used by Australians including popular social media, messaging and gaming services. Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the government had amended the Basic Online Safety Expectations to better address new and emerging online safety issues and help hold the tech industry accountable.

The new Determination will also require companies to provide, on request of the eSafety Commissioner, a report on the number of active end-users of services in Australia, broken down according to the number of users who are children or adults.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said that without information on users' ages, the Government was flying blind. Inman Grant said these strengthened powers meant her office would now be able to find out precisely how many children are on specific services. She said:

This needs to be a starting point of understanding how many under-aged users are on these platforms today, otherwise governments are flying blind. If we're serious about effectively managing the ages and stages at which a child can partake in social media, we need to move forward with all technology companies deploying effective age-assurance systems.

EU governments might soon implement messaging surveillance, euphemistically labelled as chat control, based on a new proposal by Belgium's Minister of the Interior. According to a leak obtained by Pirate Party MEP and shadow rapporteur Patrick Breyer , this could happen as early as June.

The proposal mandates that users of communication apps must agree to have all images and videos they send automatically scanned and potentially reported to the EU and police.

This agreement would be obtained through terms and conditions or pop-up messages. To facilitate this, secure end-to-end encrypted messenger services would need to implement monitoring backdoors, effectively causing a ban on private messaging. The Belgian proposal frames this as upload moderation, claiming it differs from client-side scanning. Users who refuse to consent would still be able to send text messages but would be barred from sharing images and videos.

The proposal first introduced on 8 May, has surprisingly gained support from several governments that were initially critical. It will be revisited on 24 May, and EU interior ministers are set to meet immediately following the European elections to potentially approve the legislation.

X (Twitter) is now mandating the use of a government ID-based account verification system for users that earn revenue on the platform -- either for advertising or for paid subscriptions.

To implement this system, X has partnered with Au10tix, an Israeli company known for its identity verification solutions. #

The move raises profound questions about privacy and free speech, as X claims itself to be a free speech platform, and free speech and anonymity often go hand-in-hand.

X explains:

Starting today, all new creators must verify their ID to receive payouts. All existing creators must do so by July 1, 2024, the update to X's verification page now reads: