Beep boop - this is a robot. A new show has been posted to TWiT…
What are your thoughts about today’s show? We’d love to hear from you!
The use of third-party identity services is not unusual. In the UK the Post Office has done it because they have a large number of counters nationwide that can check paperwork. They offer a digital service too, I used it the last time my driving licence was renewed, and the process included a face scan.
So I can understand why a tech firm might collaborate with a retail outlet (e.g. brewers/pubs) and put a bid in for the over-18 verification stuff.
1 Like
The same in Germany, PostIdent is widely used.
We can also use our NFC national ID cards and either a reader or our smartphones (there is an extra App for confirming identity to websites).
@Leo , you incorrectly attributed Privacy Shield as an agreement between the EU and big tech.
Privacy Shield was an agreement between the EU and the US Government to guarantee that businesses in the US could store EU citizens’ data to the legal standards required under EU law.
Between 2014 and 2020 the US Government failed to adhere to their side of the agreement, which is the reason why it was declared by the courts as null and void.
The Schrems cases were against Facebook as a representative of a business with loose data practices, which was storing data in the US.
The main problems with Privacy Shield were that the US Government agreed to name a permanent ombudsman, which they never did, despite being reminded every year that they had failed to comply with their duties under Privacy Shield.
Additionally, they did not strike the Patriot Act, FISA Courts or NSLs, or at least exempt EU sourced data from those laws. In addition, they also implemented the CLOUD Act during this period, declaring that data held in extraterritorial jurisdictions were held under US jurisdiction! This makes the storage of the data within the EU by a US based entity untenable in theory, but not proven under law.
Schrems proved that the US Government had totally failed to implement its duties and therefore Facebook storing the data in the USA was illegal (this goes for any cloud service or company storing information about EU citizens in the USA.
The CLOUD Act has not yet been tested, but theoretically bans any company with a presence in the US (HQ or even just a branch office) from handling EU data.
As I said on the TWIG thread, the US Government seems to be doing everything it can to ostracise US businesses from the international stage.
3 Likes
This episode was only ok for me. 
I guess the news last week didn’t interest me as much lol.
On crypto currency, yuo should look into Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and the Goldbug issues that FDR addressed in the 30’s. What make any currency valuable is its use in paying taxes.
1 Like