The Internet Is Becoming the Street With Checkpoints > A thought experiment about freedom, risk, and control

The Internet Is Becoming the Street With Checkpoints

A thought experiment about freedom, risk, and control

I’ve been robbed on the street. There are sex predators walking on the sidewalk. You might fall while trying to jump over a canal. I’ve even heard about shootings and knife attacks. Streets are dangerous, so why not pass a law stating that everyone stepping outside their home must show ID and fill out a form explaining where they are going, why they are going there, and for how long? This would surely make our streets much safer - although, of course, things could still happen. And naturally, people under 18 wouldn’t be allowed on streets the state considers harmful. Silly? Totalitarian? Non-functional? Counter-productive? Yes to all of the above. And on top of that, it wouldn’t even help much with crime rates. Violent crimes still happen in prisons, where everyone is known, constantly watched, and prevented from carrying anything remotely dangerous. Now think about the internet and the laws currently being proposed. Age restrictions. Identity checks. It’s not a perfect analogy, but both point in the same direction. Once you allow the state to “age-check” you on porn sites (read: identify everyone, record everything they do forever, and share it with whoever they want), why wouldn’t they require age checks on Reddit (which is full of NSFW content) or identity verification on GitHub (which hosts sensitive code)? But does this mean anyone should be able to access anything on the web? In my opinion, no. Let’s return to the street analogy. When you go to a bar, you show an ID and get your drink. The bartender doesn’t copy your ID, doesn’t sell your information, doesn’t record when you arrived or left, doesn’t log how many shots you had (or which brand), doesn’t take your photo, and certainly doesn’t report your presence to anyone. Online age verification should work the same way. A zero-knowledge proof that confirms your age without revealing anything else to the server. This technology is still relatively new, and we need to give it time to mature before forcing everyone to adopt a specific solution. #privacy #zkp #humanrights

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