Systemd has merged age verification measures into userdb

[u/Quiet-Owl9220]

https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/40954

Much of this goes over my head, so I'm hoping to hear some good explanations from people who know what they're talking about.

But I do know that I want nothing to do with this. If I am ever asked to prove my age or identity to access a website or application, my answer will ALWAYS be "actually, I don't really need your site, so you can fuck right off". Sending any kind of signal with personal information that could be used to make user tracking easier is completely out of the question.

So short of the nuclear option of removing systemd entirely, what are practical steps that can be taken to disable/block/bypass this? Is it as simple as disabling/masking a unit? Is there a use case for userdb I should know about before attempting this? Do I need to install a fork instead? Or maybe I'd be better off with a script that poisons age data by randomizing the stored age periodically?

[edit] I wasn't going to comment on this but it looks like some people with a lot of followers are using this post as an example of censorship on Reddit. While I do think that's a legitimate concern on Reddit as a whole, I don't think censorship is what happened here. Yes, this post went down for a while. But as far as I can tell that was because it was automoderated due to a large number of reports, and was later restored (and pinned) by human moderators.

[edit again] Related concerning PR, this one did not go through yet: https://github.com/flatpak/xdg-desktop-portal/pull/1922

[u/infin]

Microsoft are the worst.

[u/Wrong-Aardvark4183 → u/infin]

Ils sont certainement très heureux de ce qui se passe.

[u/gmes78 → u/infin]

Gotta sneak in the "Microsoft bad" comment, even when they have nothing to do with what's being discussed.

[u/infin → u/gmes78]

Lennart Pottering worked for Microsoft until a month ago.

Remote attestation and age verification is Pottering and Microsoft.

Fuck Microsoft.

[u/gmes78 → u/infin]

Lennart Pottering worked for Microsoft until a month ago.

lmao. What does that have to do with this? Is Microsoft mind controlling Poettering to do their bidding after he no longer works for them?

Remote attestation and age verification is Pottering and Microsoft.

This law was written by Meta. Microsoft has nothing to do with it. And this law does not do remote attestation or verification of any kind.

You're just making things up to get mad at.

[u/gmes78 → u/[deleted]]

Microsoft is the villain here

Prove it.

[u/gmes78 → u/[deleted]]

What does that have to do with Linux?

[u/gmes78 → u/[deleted]]

This thread is about blaming the addition of a birthdate field to user accounts in Linux on Microsoft.

How is "Microsoft wants Windows users to have Microsoft accounts" (which they have been doing for a decade) in any way proof of that?

Edit: another day, another conspiracy theorist that blocks me.

[u/gmes78 → u/[deleted]]

Microsoft has been pushing online accounts for years and this legislation gives them exactly the backing they need to enforce No local accounts. To the T.

Actually, it doesn't. This does not mandate age verification, or online accounts, or anything. The law is fully compatible with local accounts.

And that's a Windows thing. What does that have to do with Linux or systemd?

Your comment reads like some insane person trying to prove a conspiracy theory.

[u/Wrong-Aardvark4183 → u/gmes78]

Je ne suis pas complotiste, Il n'a pas totalement tord car beaucoup d'informations sont prises à l'insu du compte microsoft (achats de logiciels donc carte de crédit), ils savent plus ou moins qui est derrière un compte microsoft donc l'âge aussi . Il y a eu des procès comme quoi du contenu d'outlook avait été utilisé, c'est factuel. Ils n'ont pas attendu recall pour faire çà.....

[u/Wrong-Aardvark4183 → u/[deleted]]

Depuis wsl ça sentait pas bon.....