As the number of internet users continues to grow, so does the amount of online dangers such as hackers and exploiters. To safeguard numerous online services, some companies have begun to develop secure sets of rules and regulations to ensure users’ privacy. However, due to the unprecedented rise of AI and deepfakes, privacy and legitimacy have never been more difficult to secure.
The threat of bots and automated users also make privacy harder to protect, as the online space becomes more advanced. Companies have adapted, of course, by implementing more guidelines and updating their algorithms. This is supposed to be beneficial, but it’s started to become a bit extreme. Policies like age verification regulations have been updated to the point that government issued identification is required, and the age you select isn’t necessarily the age the company sets for your account.
YouTube’s algorithm determines your age based on what you have shown interest in, so if the media you consume is deemed to be in a specific age demographic, then the algorithm will set restrictions according to that. This leads to people who are of adequate age being restricted from content because an automated system is used to determine their age. This becomes a hindrance for those who let children use their accounts because their algorithm will incorrectly restrict their media. This takes freedom away from the user and doesn’t serve its purpose completely.
Discord is a company that has also altered their age policies as of late. Discord utilizes another company, Persona, to carry out all of its identity verification. In 2016, Discord had its servers breached and 70,000 of its users’ government IDs were exposed. In California, companies are required to delete their users personal information under the California Privacy Act, but Persona has kept this data stored, compromising their users’ security.
After Discord reassured people that they and Persona were trustworthy, it introduced the idea of using artificial intelligence to verify users’ age via a selfie or picture. Like YouTube, Discord also considered analyzing users’ activity to determine their age. Discord then stated that it would continue to ask for government identification, raising the concern that a widespread breach could reoccur.
A different breach occurred this year on Roblox, where 10,386 users had their email addresses leaked. This followed a separate breach of theirs, 50.2 thousand users whose information was exposed in 2016. This was significant data like IP addresses, account balances, email addresses, and purchases. This data was collected because of the numerous requirements in Robloxs’ safety policies. Recently, these policies have been tightened, with some services on the platform being outright blocked to some users. Features like the chat and certain games are now restricted to some age groups. With 56% of Roblox’s player base being children, a restriction of the chat completely isolates players and that can eliminate some of the joy found in the communication. Even though certain violent games being restricted can be a good thing, too many limitations drives away the target consumer of the service.
With technology progressing at this current rate, especially in AI models, peoples’ concern for online legitimacy increases as well. Companies come in on top of this problem and enforce new requirements and withhold certain accessibilities. This has turned a once-open online space into a sketchy one, where giving your information is mandatory and those who store it don’t care about its protection. Privacy is getting harder to maintain on the internet and these recently imposed policies don’t make it easier.
