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Comment by everdrive | Hacker News Reader

Right now, technology has reached a point where it's expected to be ubiquitous, however is not as accessible as other ubiquitous and necessary services. This has been brought up before, buy can someone in their 70s keep up with the changing UIs and websites and security requirements these days? This is all fine for something like Netflix or Spotify. But for government services, access to jobs, and fundamental communications this poses a problem.

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> someone in their 70s keep

I'm in my early 40s, computer programmer, and I've temporarily lost access to my WhatsApp account because I don't have a recent enough mobile phone, and the phone that I do have doesn't have a relatively recent OS installed.

It's a 4-year old (I think I've got it for 4 years) iPhone SE, on which I never updated the OS because I hadn't feel the need to do it. When I started getting pop-ups that "hey, our app will stop functioning on your phone unless you upgrade the OS" was already too late for that, I was afraid that upgrading the phone to the latest OS will cripple it permanently in terms of performance (the battery is already on its way out by this point).

So, assuming I get to 70, in no way I'll be up to date by then in terms of having the latest OS installed and all that crazy stuff, who has the time and the nerves for that? (especially the nerves).

What‘s your speciality in programming?

Keeping all your software, and that includes the OS, up to date, is one of the most important aspects of personal security.

I also don’t have a WiFi password at home, if it matters. Of course, I don’t have Internet banking nor do I do much (if at all) money-related things with my phone, something tells me that makes me more secure than people who trust Apple and Google with their money (at least the local banks have to answer to the authorities).

What’s your employment specialty that makes you trust Apple and Google?

That something would be wrong. I can steal all your money with the information on the front of one of your checks.

Having a Wifi password is honestly pretty important unless you're remote enough that there's just no chance someone can access your network. Remember, unencrypted WiFi doesn't just mean that someone can access your network, but also that they can collect your traffic.

If your face hurts, maybe you should stop punching yourself in the face. Update your software.

Equating lack of software updates to punching oneself in the face is part of the whole problem.

It's not though. No one writes perfect software on first release. Even perfect software adapts to the changing realities of our world. Staying up to date is not optional.

We're crippling along depending on family, libraries, charities, and other NGO support services.

The DMV works with people like this all the time; perhaps something could be done there where you have a government issued email address that you can't lose or be locked out of (worst case you take your ID to the DMV and the nice clerk helps you reset your password/sign in).

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