Google to start age verification in Canada

Canadian Press (via CTV News) reports that Google to begin using age assurance tech to identify underage accounts in Canada:

Google is bringing its age assurance technology — which uses artificial intelligence to detect underage users — to Canada.

Of course the AI buzzword. Will it be the same AI that will handle the appeals when they block people accounts?

If it mistakenly identifies an adult as being under 18, the company says that person will be able to prove their age using things like a government ID or a selfie.

Always be collecting more data. It’s not like ID verification services have failed to protect the data.

ID verification (for the purpose of age verification, or not) is a bad idea. It’s a privacay disaster everywhere, it increases tje risk of ID theft, hinder participation, and track minorities and people “at risk”. Politicians that don’t see this ought to be barred from being in office: our privacy laws (or lack thereof) reflect this.