Google wants to know your exact age. Pretends it's “the law” | Hacker News Reader

Google wants to know your exact age. Pretends it's “the law”

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14 pointstpoacher8 comments

The fastest way to convince me not to use a product is to attach the word "Google" to it. I have been de-Googled for quite some time and things like this only confirm my decision.

Never give anyone your exact DOB unless they have a proven need to know. Your name and DOB can be used to obtain all of your personal info including SSN.

If you must ignore my advice and use Google "services", create an alternate, consistent online personna which leaks a minimum of real personal data.

Use the month of your DOB as is but always enter "1" as the day and always subtract a fixed amount "X" from the real year. This makes your personna "X" years older than you really are.

This corrupts your profile and is easily/consistently reproduced when/if you're asked to verify again after you can't be absolutely identified.

Consistency is key. They are unlikely to ban/disable your personna if you provide a consistent DOB and age.

FLoC you Google.

They aren't even subtle about it.

Once you cave in and type your actual date of birth in, there's a popup to say "This is your current age, please confirm", and then "Thank you. This ensures we can sell the right kind of personalised ads to you".

"The law" my ass.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the law says the exact opposite, i.e. that Google cannot reasonably extort that kind of data from its users, without a clear intent, consent, and opportunity to refuse without punishment.

At least the GDPR in Europe says so.

Another data point over which they can shut down your account ("You lied about your age. That's not only TOS, it's against the law.").

Maybe it's used to compute if you're a minor.

The exact age would allow Google to determine at any point in the future if you're no longer a minor, which is not possible with a yes/no question.

Else they would have to ask every day anew.

If I am not a minor now, when would I become one?

This presupposes the requirement that your google account necessarily needs to link to a real person with verifiable metadata.

However, this was clearly debunked/lambasted LAST time they tried to enforce it with google plus.

This cavalier attitude towards my data and the fact that many services now enforce logging in with a google account rather than plain email and password, means that I need to create a "dummy" google account for those services. E.g. one of my accounts is dubbed Johnny English.

So how exactly is proving that my imaginary Johnny English persona is not underage have anything of real relevance to do with the law?

Answer, it doesn't. It's just another blatant attempt to strongarm people into surrenderring more data than they strictly need to.

Most people will cave and use their real DOB, simply because you KNOW Google will try to use it against you if you use a fake one (like, if God forbid you are ever kicked out of your account for one of Google's infamous "you broke our rules but we're not telling you which ones" shenanigans)

I call bullcrap. Is there even a tangentially legal basis for it? Do I really need to go look up the exact date of birth for my Kind Edward IIIrd gmail profile now?

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