remedia

In order to provide a “yes, this person is over 18” service for a vendor, the vendor has to know which real name (or other personally identifiable piece of information) to look up, don’t they?

So if you have to provide the vendor with a real name, phone number, ID card number or selfie that identifies the account “draco_aeneus@mander.xyz” with “John Doe/555-4556/X1234567” that eliminates your anonymity, they’ve accomplished surveillance over your personal opinions and whatever other content you share. The real problem isn’t age verification, the problem is they’re trying to eliminate anonymity.

Yes, it’s encrypted. Wouldn’t be much of a point if it was just plaintext.