the only way to stop this is for entire swaths of people to quit their jobs.
There's a middle ground: unionization and strikes. Not always successful but more effective than just complaining.
Age verification done the right way does not require providing any personal info. I 100% oppose forcing people to share personal data with private companies. This is not what we’re talking about here.
Handing your government ID and other personal data to private companies is exactly how current proposals for online age verification work. It could be done without this, but that's not what governments and corporations are pushing for, because the goal is easier surveillance. Take a look at some of the problems with Persona, for example:
The next step will be to make more essential services online only, so people have to use the internet.
They probably know this perfectly well. But there are corporations and their lobbyists to think of, and they'd much prefer it if ordinary people weren't able to build their own devices and spare parts, but instead had to buy them at inflated prices.
Into fascism. But also from fascism.
That has always been true, but the prices are higher for all tiers now.
Yeah but then they wouldn't get to collect people's biometric data to sell to the highest bidder.
Yeah I don't really do new technology any more. I'm more into keeping the old machines running as long as possible.
Painfully expensive, like all computer hardware these days.
It's probably lobbying by corporations who feel threatened by people being able to make and repair their own stuff. Also possibly gun manufacturers, and perhaps the government's desire to spy on everything people are doing with tech. These things are always dressed up as safety measures.
Just once I'd like to see the world's companies react to dumb local laws by refusing to sell their products where the laws apply. Problem is, other states and countries always introduce matching stupid laws soon enough. California, for example, is introducing a similar restriction on 3D printers.
I can't help but notice that in response to people's concern that Meta may be able to read people's messages, the Meta spokesperson responds that WhatsApp can't read them. A little bit of administrative juggling on Meta's end so that the team with access to the messages doesn't fall within the WhatsAll group, and both claims could be true.