If you can look it up yourself quickly, or just ask a person on the phone quickly, lots of people will call.

But if the phonecall is at least 15 minutes of listening to annoying my music first, looking it up yourself might seem like a better idea.

People who really need to talk to a person might be annoyed, but it won’t make them consider a competitor.

Yes, this advice seems out of date now.

Maybe your lock screen has an ICE function, otherwise just put it on your lock screen as plain text.

In some areas, almost everything is private property. Including sidewalks, parks, beaches…

I was in a city that only had one green area that was publicly accessible. The was signs that you weren’t allowed to be on the grass, only the paths. So you could pretty much only walk through. Even just standing, you’d be in the way.

I get that the property owner sets the rules, but if everything is private, it gets hard to exist.

So it’s free because it’s already yours?

Yeah, here the main certificate is digital, and it’s with the government.

Why would they ask for my birth certificate - they already have it.

Can you spare a dollar? I need a beer.

Exactly, it’s not related to me at all.

there’s a whole class of street beggars pretending to look needy

Yep, in some areas that can actually give a middle class income.

Imagine working hard on a low income job, but you make enough to “fit in”. You have a house, you have a car, your kids can join class trips.

Then there’s a beggar that’s making more than you, but doesn’t have any kids. They have a better house, a better car, and goes to Thailand for two weeks every year.

In streets, they are talking to random strangers. Like I’m going to the grocery store, on the way there someone asks for money because they want money.

Online, they are usually begging their fans, or at least people who is showing some sort of interest. Like I’m watching a YouTube video, and the creator is asking for a donation, as a volunteer payment for their effort.

I don’t know how the system works, but that is definitely not how it’s supposed to work. I would not like to use a system like that.

you’re not from one of those countries which freed themselves from some dictatorship or other recently

This is true.

software running on your devices which is capable of automatically reporting to the authorities everything you do.

This would be my only government app that is NOT capable of doing that, because it’s open source. If they start doing that, it will be all over the media.

I already have at least 7 apps where that could do that and get away with it. That should be the concern, not this new app.

As the US is showing right now, it doesn’t take much to go from absolutelly legit activity

If our government was like yours (even the way it was before Teump), I would be as concerned as you are. But it’s not.

I’m making the bet that if the government changes, I will have time to adapt. (Yes, I could be wrong.)

profoundly against any “report to the authorities”

Yeah, but that’s not what’s happening here, so I don’t feel like discussing that here.

Yes, all of that happens. That is a valid worry. Which is why they tried to avoid it.

Did you see how much they did to avoid this? Do you see a flaw in their solution?

This won’t tell them that.

That system is basically the government. They already know.

First, government id has a very different ring here, than in the us. It’s not that different from a name or a face. It’s not s big deal. Almost anytime there’s any need to be recognized formally, the government id is an easy way to do it.

We don’t really use “all names and addresses you’ve had the past 5 years” and all that.

So think about any app, where you need to id yourself better than just an email adress or phone number. It will be all of those.

I have an app to access my medical record. Nobody accesses my medical record without identifying themselves, in a trustworthy way.

My bank app, with access to all my financials, including pension funds - same deal.

There’s a payment app that is very popular here, the kids uses it too. It requires id. That id solves some issues that could have been solved in other ways, but since id is no big deal here, that’s the easiest solution by far.

Oatmeal. I can see some yellow tint, but that is all I notice.

I add 1 egg to one portion.

I do see your concerns as valid. But at least in my country, we already have all of that.

I have an app I use to id myself to all sorts of stuff. Almost all of us has that. All the changes you mention are not changes, we have already had that for years. The new thing is that you don’t give your id to the website.

Just like during the pandemic, we had an app to prove our vaccination status, without revealing id. Before that we had to prove id, and then they looked up vaccination status.

The central authority is basically my government. They already know.

Here they also do it for tobacco.

I see how this would be considered a problem in the US.

In Europe we see these things differently. I have a number of apps already, that knows my government id. Honestly I don’t know how many, I haven’t needed to keep track.

All sorts of apps from drivers license to a social networking app, which all needs to know my exact id to work. Even my kids has their government id on their phones. This includes an app which only purpose is to prove the users identity.

Having one more appwith your id is not a problem. Specially when its purpos is to NOT show your id.

Unlike most other age verification system, this doesn’t reveal any other personal information but your age. No credit card number, no personal id.

So I’m curious how you get to your conclusion?

That was my only data, not limited because I ran out. I’m saying how trash the speed is and how little it can do.

That changes the “good enough” part a lot.

I know it’s trash. But it works. That’s great, if you’ve run out of data and really need to pay a bill. (Possibly internet bill.) It takes patience, but it’s possible.