| Age verification laws remain the policy approach of choice for politicians seeking an easy win against the perils of big tech, while also avoiding actually doing anything about those perils (aside from funneling money into more digital surveillance, annoying users, and potentially censoring legitimate content online). Now, age verification is coming for your computer, bringing the same privacy concerns with it. A lot of tech policy has this problem: The proposed solution to tech problems ends up creating new, different tech problems.
In better news, Apple may be working on an iOS update that detects when a phone is snatched and automatically locks it. It’s worth mentioning that Apple already has a number of security features to help you lock and protect a lost phone, but if it’s snatched while it’s unlocked, you’re kind of out of luck. This comes on the heels of reports of thousands of iPhone thefts in London, with their owners being blackmailed or threatened into giving the thieves their Apple ID credentials, so the thieves can unlock, wipe, and resell the phones. |
