Plus, you'd be giving Google your government ID. A company that collects and trades thousands of your behavioral metrics as their core business model.

The Baltics have handled this better with a Smart ID system[0] that also allows cryptographic document signing (like Adobe Sign but non-repudiable by law). It can perform proof-of-human like Altman's orbs, and allows Baltic citizens to file documents with the government, access electronic court records, electronic medical records, e-banking, and similar services.

One downside of the system is that its purpose is to identify a natural person using a service. So whichever service uses it as authentication, it will receive personal data. However, there are third-party sign-on gateways that use Smart ID (and other e-signature methods legal in the Baltics) to authenticate users and only disclose certain bits of personal information to those requesting authentication. In Lithuania, the government operates a service called the E-Government Gateway, and one can easily imagine it could be used for zero-knowledge age verification.

Ultimately, Google seems to be offering a far inferior product at a lot more risk to the user. Once again, their core business is user profiling, associating various user metrics with each profile. A government ID is the holy grail for user profiling. It's sort of like if a wolf offered a sheep-verification service - yes, we could trust the wolf to act professionally towards the sheep, despite it coming out in sheep court several times that it hasn't in the past. But is it wise to suspend disbelief like that? It's better to leave this to independent, expert companies, or even governments.

[0] https://www.smart-id.com/

And it sounds like a complete nightmare when you're one of those people whose Google account gets suspended for some random reason, with no appeal process and no way to contact actual customer service.

Now you don't have any ID either, and can't prove who you are.

> the presence of this kind of technology makes it easier for governments to say things like "all ___ content online must be restricted to ages 18+ or 21+" and actually have a way to implement that across Discord and TikTok and gaming chatrooms and everything inbetween

There will still be sites that don’t GAF. Given the damage social media has done to our polity, particularly our youth, I’m all for age gating these services at a fundamental level.

I've had similar ideas regarding how US Military ID cards work. The tech enthusiast in me loves the idea of ubiquitous strong 2FA, functioning ID systems that separate "identification" from "authentication" (looking at you, SSNs), etc.

Identity theft would become essentially impossible. Then if it were adopted by things that are fundamentally associated with your real identity (e.g., banks, payment processors, insurance providers, government institutions) then whole classes of phishing scams would become impossible.

Then there are the use cases where it's convenient for the user. Public transit, event admissions, membership cards.

Then there are the use cases where it's convenient for the provider. Alcohol sales, social media, adult content.

... Yeah, that would turn into a dystopia incredibly fast.

I really wish Governments would operate digital infrastructure like this. I've heard some do, sorta.

Just don't ever use it and it won't succeed.

i am in favor of increasing government capacity

And yet governments can do this in the offline world. Why is it so much more dangerous in the online world?

You’re more worried kids won’t be able to see filth online if they want than how this will be abused by authoritarian governments to clamp down on free speech?