Ask HN: Websites requiring government ID

5 points by piratesAndSons 226 days ago | 2 comments

In recent years, government ID requirements to browse the internet have suddenly become more common. To understand who might be pushing this, consider the following question.

Suppose you woke up in the year 2035 and every HTTP request required a valid government ID to accompany it. Without it, you could not view the web document. In that world, who would benefit? What kinds of businesses would be in demand in a government ID gated internet? Who would be the main beneficiaries?

Bender 226 days ago |

If I were thinking like a totalitarian my answer would be that requiring a government ID and possibly mapping that ID to a computer's TPM or something along that line so one can not just use another account means one could ban a user not just from one site but from all sites that require government ID.

I equate this to Valve's VAC ban: A Steam VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat) ban is a permanent, non-negotiable penalty applied when an account connects to secured servers while running unauthorized cheat software. It restricts access to multiplayer in VAC-secured games, is publicly displayed on your profile, and cannot be removed by Steam Support, even if a third party was using your account. Permanence: Bans are permanent. If an account is VAC banned, the ban cannot be removed.

Now just apply that to all major platforms and companies on the internet and we have the year 2035, at least I think that is the direction we are going. It will probably show up in the DMV database when a state ID is queried. What I do not know is what they will call it and how much it will cost to get it removed. NannyBan? OoopsYouDontExist? SeeMe? TooManyDemeritsBAN? Not,Sure? WrongThinkBAN? WrongSpeakBAN?

verdverm 226 days ago |

I suspect that we will need/want GovID + ZKP before long because of Ai

Too many bad actors out there, it's only getting worse