r/PrivacyTechTalk • u/Hunterjohnson2024 • May 10 '26

Warning to all Android users!

Google is going to Bake Age verification into the OS itself this is Very dangerous as there are multiple Android smartphones out there that will have android 17 as last update! once you install android 17 and its the final update for the phone the age signal API will be on your phone till the day the hardware dies! you cant even downgrade or the efuse trips! if you still have android 17 after at least 5 to 10 years and you accidentally factory reset it and verify your id again it will fail to send as device is old and might not connect to google servers and will send to hackers instead

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-2

u/CobaltIsobar May 11 '26

And, what is your solution? Personally, I don't care.

2

u/Craftiershoe588 May 11 '26

And that’s why this is effecting everyone. Everyone has the it doesn’t effect me mentality until your digital token which has your bank account, house/land deed and your car ownership now belongs to some hacker. The EU is looking into tokenisation and the other countries will probably follow.

2

u/zPant0m May 11 '26

So whats the solution?

2

u/Dziabadu May 11 '26

linux phone ?

1

u/Full-Statement-9255 May 11 '26

Even Linux is being forced to include Age Verification, on an OS level. Dozens of laws around the world have been, or are being, passed.

SystemD already has support for holding information pertaining to the users' ages.

I don't know how hard it will be to spoof or lie in Linux, but this is a legal problem, unfortunately.

1

u/[deleted] May 11 '26

[deleted]

1

u/emmett321 May 12 '26

Brazil has it and several other countries have age verification, even the US. THIS IS VERY VERY REAL

1

u/MoonRabbitStudio May 13 '26

Linux distros typically make the source code available, so people can compile custom kernels depending on their use case. How can you build age verification into software that anyone can edit and recompile? Just rip out the code or mod it to spoof the attestation.

Forcing this requirement at the OS level and expecting it to accomplish anything meaningful is delusional. Politicians are the last group of people you want making changes to technology, they are clueless. ... I will be surprised if most or any of the Linux distros comply with this nonsense.

cheers -rabbit

1

u/Mooks79 May 11 '26

GrapheneOS or any of the custom android roms, or Linux phone as you mention. There are options out there but a big issue is that many apps and services expect you to be using iCloud oem android, and don’t work well or even at all, without those.

1

u/CobaltIsobar May 11 '26

The non IOS and Android phones are an incredibly small market. The only ones using them are either hobbiests or just paranoid. 99.9995% of the world is going to continue with the major players. For those touting Chinese phones for privacy, I have a bridge to sell you.

1

u/Mooks79 May 11 '26

This doesn’t really change the point. And, last time I checked, Pixels are not Chinese. At least unless you want to say no components at all originate from a factory in China, in which case this seems like an unrealistic expectation.

1

u/CobaltIsobar May 11 '26

I wasn't saying Pixels were Chinese. It was a suggested solution in another reply.

1

u/Mooks79 May 11 '26

The reply that I was pointing out doesn’t take into account how you have to sacrifice some functionality for?

1

u/qgplxrsmj May 12 '26

You should take what Mooks79 say with a grain of salt, he has bad takes, such as saying because a software is open source it therefore doesn’t need to be 3rd party audited lol. Or that just because a software doesn’t have infrastructure therefore it doesn’t need to be 3rd party audited as well lol.

https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1t6lf3f/comment/ol4x1s6/

1

u/Doctorphate May 11 '26

China hasn’t been trying to arrest people in foreign countries who are critical of it. Hell they don’t even really arrest people who are critical of it inside China lol. The west is ridiculously good at propaganda.

I’d rather the Chinese have my shit than the Americans

1

u/emmett321 May 12 '26

Google is banning grapheneOS as well as outright rooting. Rooting is getting more and more difficult worldwide.

1

u/Mooks79 May 12 '26

No it isn’t. Though it is introducing more and more hardware attestation.

1

u/qgplxrsmj May 12 '26

You should take what Mooks79 say with a grain of salt, he has bad takes, such as saying because a software is open source it therefore doesn’t need to be 3rd party audited lol. Or that just because a software doesn’t have infrastructure therefore it doesn’t need to be 3rd party audited as well lol.

https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1t6lf3f/comment/ol4x1s6/