this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2026
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I traced $2 billion in nonprofit grants and 45 states of lobbying records to figure out who's behind the age verification bills (www.reddit.com)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) by ikidd@lemmy.world to c/linux@programming.dev
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God, I hate posting a Reddit comment, but this is huge. Every claim is sourced (I have not verified personally).

Edit: Well, Reddit does what reddit does, it's been removed. Here is a github link: https://github.com/upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findings

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.bestiver.se/post/985257

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[–] ulterno@programming.dev 2 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

The application of age indication is just going to be another metric that these companies use for fingerprinting and person identification, one that some analyst on their inside possibly considered a useful data point.

And while this particular API might be an easy one to target, for removal as a patch, it might end up being part of a JS framework that many websites use and will break in case the return value is not available.

So if people require sites to work, this will become just another feature, requiring similar mitigations to other JS features I mentioned, that will need to be handled in a way that it increases the anonymity of the user, lest the user be subjected to harassment.

By "harassment", I mean the actual inescapable kind, not just random internet trolls.

[–] artyom@piefed.social -2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

The application of age indication is just going to be another metric that these companies use for fingerprinting

As I said, there's nothing to suggest they would receive such an indicator, as far as I'm aware. The indicator is only required between the app store and the OS.

[–] ulterno@programming.dev 2 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

Facebook has "apps", no?

Last I checked, it had stuff like FarmVille, FrontierVille, etc.

[–] artyom@piefed.social -2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

We weren't talking about apps, we were talking about Facebook like buttons on websites.

[–] ulterno@programming.dev 0 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Causation:

  1. FaceBook website has apps
  2. FaceBook website is an App store
  3. FaceBook website requires access to Age API
  4. Firefox needs to passthrough Age API to Facebook's domain
  5. All embedded FaceBook buttons now get to see your OS's age
[–] artyom@piefed.social -1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

That's not an app store.

[–] ulterno@programming.dev 0 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Does the Court ask you?
Does the legislature?
Does Meta come to ask what you call an "App Store"?

[–] artyom@piefed.social -3 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

The legislation clearly states what is and is not an app store. I'd recommend you mull it over.

[–] ulterno@programming.dev 1 points 7 hours ago

(3) APP.—The term “app” means a software application or electronic service that may be run or directed by a user on a computer, mobile device, or any other general purpose computing device.

(4) APP STORE.—The term “app store” means a publicly available website, software application, or other electronic service that distributes and facilitates the download of an app from a third-party developer by a user of a computer, mobile device, or any other general purpose computing device.

100% sure they all come in the category of an "App Store" when convenient for the lobbyist.