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by felooboolooomba 2 hours ago
Meta has spent $2B lobbying for this.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47410870

1 comments

They're lobbying FOR it?! I thought this would hinder them along with everyone else
Meta has a long history of breaking the law. I have no doubts Meta will have access to the personal details once you've "verified your age". They'll know WHO you are, as accurately as possible. Can you imagine how much that it worth to Meta, history's largest harvester of personal data? A whole lot more than $2B.

Now, based on their ruthless disregard for the law, do you think they're just going to use it to sell your ads?

They lobby for because then they can collect biometrics from kids and then reject them. So they don't serve underage kids , no fines but they do get data.
And it's another non-trivial barrier to entry for any potential upstart that may eventually grow to be a problem for meta
> then they can collect biometrics from kids

They will collect it from everyone to prove your age.

The question only that is it worth the gamble by Meta, as in how many people would rather leave the sites (from Whatsapp to Insta to Facebook) than give them their ID

They want to know all the children are 18+ to remove liability for what they do to them.
They are facing thousands of lawsuits related to teens and addiction because their harmful site is harmful.

Plus they are lobbying for it to be someone else's problem they are lobbying for device and OS based age verification.

If Facebook knows your precise age they can market to you "better."