Age Verification Is Inescapable: The Truth About 'Alternatives' | Tech,Privacy News - Explained

When Discord demanded facial scans, searches for alternatives jumped 10,000% overnight. People fled to Matrix, Mastodon, and Bluesky. Then Matrix implemented age verification.

This video looks at two parallel escape routes — decentralised messaging and alternative social media — and asks whether they're still open. From the Discord exodus to the EU's new cross-platform identity infrastructure launching this month, the pattern is consistent:
the exits close the moment they become visible.

• Matrix, Element & Revolt — what the messaging alternatives actually offer
• The Fediverse — Mastodon
• when Matrix became the go-to Discord alternative
• How GDPR already reached individual #Mastodon instance admins
• The #EU's centralised #AgeVerification app (July 2026) — what it really is
• Why the #OnlineSafetyAct and #DSA extend jurisdiction beyond borders
• Whether any identity-free infrastructure can survive at scale

Woman in Denver is forced to prove her innocence after police used #Flock cameras to accuse her of theft

"We have cameras everywhere in that town and you cannot get a breath of fresh air without us knowing"

When police are admitting this out loud, it's time to admit the cage isn’t coming, we're already inside it. – Source

@Revelations_and_Rabbit_Holes

His #Windows PC Testified Against Him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOoP4BSATJs

#why #microslop #cybersecurity #privacy

#Debian Urgently Seeks Volunteers After Data Protection Team Resigns

https://linuxiac.com/debian-urgently-seeks-volunteers-after-data-protection-team-resigns/

ahah what privacy?? the only privacy debian has is the one it violates, pretty much since 2018, to serve the interest of corporate owned web browsers with the /etc/machine-id implemented by dbus and systemd

well done resigning, what took so long

https://m.slashdot.org/story/364072
context

https://lists.dyne.org/lurker/message/20190308.124740.2b7329de.en.html

this is how debian ripped its users of their privacy all this time

and then they even call it "software in the public interest"

#Linux devices have a unique identifier called machine-id. Here is how to change it.

Posted on February 24, 2021

What is a machine-id, and why should you randomize it? From the machine-id man pages, it is defined as:

This ID uniquely identifies the host. It should be considered “confidential”, and must not be exposed in untrusted environments, in particular on the network. If a stable unique identifier that is tied to the machine is needed for some application, the machine ID or any part of it must not be used directly.
https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/machine-id.5.html

In an effort to promote privacy, having a unique and unchanging identifier tied to your device seems like the wrong approach. It’s quite possible that poorly coded or even maliciously coded software could fetch this ID from your system. Let’s make sure that even if that does happen, that the value is constantly changing so that your device can not be uniquely identified as your device.
This is an incredibly simple and quick adjustment to your default Linux system. What we’re doing is showing you how to either adjust this value manually by hand, or by running a cronjob to change this value every minute with a new, randomized value.
Before we begin, a disclaimer: We’ve tested this on our own work desktops and development environments and I’ve tested it on my daily driver desktop. We have not found that anything has ‘broken’ because of this, but this is untested in many environments and may not be suitable for your use. It’s always reversible if you later wish to continue with a single, uniquely identifying ID attached to your device(s).
Debian / Ubuntu systems
To check your machine-id, open up your terminal and enter the following:
cat /etc/machine-id
The output should look a little something like this:
a9976154f0084a3782892638656ad9fd
You’ll note that this value is also stored in /var/lib/dbus/machine-id and that a symlink between the two exist. Any change to one file, will be reflected in the other.
me@virtbox-testing:~$ cat /etc/machine-id a9976154f0084a3782892638656ad9fd me@virtbox-testing:~$ cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id a9976154f0084a3782892638656ad9fd
If you reboot your device, you’ll notice that this value remains unchanged. So, let’s change it ourselves!
Method 1: Manually.
Method 2 is automatically, every minute, as ran by a cron-job. If you don’t want to fully commit to that, you can change your machine-id by hand manually whenever you feel like it.
Step 1, remove the old machine-id file.
sudo rm /etc/machine-id
Step 2, recreate the machine-id file.
sudo systemd-machine-id-setup
Step 3, confirm that /etc/machine-id (and /var/lib/dbus/machine-id) now show a new value, different from the original.
cat /etc/machine-id && cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id
That’s it! You should see two lines in your output with matching IDs that differ from the original machine-id you had in the beginning.
me@virtbox-testing:~$ cat /etc/machine-id && cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id a78badce3e73beced163bbef7e55232a a78badce3e73beced163bbef7e55232a
You’ve changed your device’s uniquely identifying machine-id. This change will survive device reboots and will remain the same until you create a new one.
Method 2: Changing every 1 minute, automatically.
If the above didn’t satisfy your needs, than feel free to automate the creation of a new machine-id by creating a cronjob entry that will generate a new ID every minute.
Step 1, open up your crontab file.
sudo crontab -e
Step 2, enter at the bottom of the file the following:
*/1 * * * * sudo rm /etc/machine-id && sudo systemd-machine-id-setup
Save and Exit.
Step 3, wait a minute and confirm that your machine-id value has changed:
cat /etc/machine-id && cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id
You should see two new matching values, that differs from the original value you had at the start. Wait a minute and run the step 3 command again, and you’ll see that these values have changed.

You’ll see that the command, when ran a minute or more apart, will produce new values now.
me@virtbox-testing:~$ cat /etc/machine-id && cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id b722903d87994e24b6378289262c3021 b722903d87994e24b6378289262c3021 me@virtbox-testing:~$ cat /etc/machine-id && cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id 4352c41ad7fb4a05a54b0942c5c27cb0 4352c41ad7fb4a05a54b0942c5c27cb0
In closing
Uniquely identifying ID’s are rarely a good thing when you take privacy into consideration, and although these items have their purpose in limited use cases it doesn’t appear that generating a new unique ID every minute has any downsides.
What do you think? Is this a pointless privacy practice or a needed, but often overlooked part in maintaining privacy in the modern age? Let us know in the comments below.
Additional Thoughts
After publishing this article, we received some feedback that I’d like to touch base on here.
Testing the high privacy, pro-anonymity Tails-OS shows that you receive a new machine-id after every reboot. Props to Tails-OS!
Testing the privacy and anonymity promoting Whonix-OS shows that they do not issue a new machine-ID after every reboot.
A commenter on a [RAMBLE] post mentions that MXLinux does not use systemd, and thus does not use a machine-id.
Here is a list of Linux operating systems that do not use systemd. (And will not have a machine-id)
Yes, there are other uniquely identifying aspects on all systems. From device serial numbers to MAC addresses. The purpose of this post was to discuss a lesser discussed unique identifer: machine-id.

When you start seeing grocery items for what they really are... 😳

Russia struck the Kiev-71 Industrial Enterprise last night.

It is the backbone of Ukraine's reconnaissance UAV program, producing Strela, Mara, and Sirko drones, plus FPVs and optical gear.

This is a direct hit on Kiev's defence tech hub. Onwards.

@irishmaninrussia
#Ukraine #Russia #Nato

Explosions Rip Through Damascus During The French President’s Visit

The series of bombings injured 19 & were allegedly targeting Emmanuel Macron & Syrian officials.

Just days earlier a cafe bombing in Damascus killer 9 & inured over 20 others.

How Israel traded trafficked children for nuclear technology from France.

Now with captions in Arabic and Persian

@Resistancetoast
#Zionism #US #France

United States pressures sovereign governments to cut off Cuban medical cooperation
http://en.granma.cu/mundo/2026-07-02/united-states-pressures-sovereign-governments-to-cut-off-cuban-medical-cooperation

The U.S. government is attempting to isolate Cuba and is attacking the right to health of thousands of people worldwide

EU Mandates Driver-Facing Cameras in New Cars From Today | Reclaim The Net

Every new car and van sold across the European Union will watch its driver from July 7, when an infrared camera aimed at the person behind the wheel becomes a legal condition of sale. The requirement reaches tens of millions of vehicles a year, and it arrives wrapped in the language of safety.


The rule goes by Advanced Driver Distraction Warning, or ADDW, and is inside the bloc’s General Safety Regulation, formally 2019/2144. Carmakers have had to fit it to new vehicle types since July 2024. From July 7, 2026, they must fit it to every new car and van that reaches the market.

Fuck the #EU #BigBrother #Dystopia

i suppose its worth adding that the PEP in essence was a fabian offshoot... the same fabians who in 2023 suggested shifting power of financial policy into a - yes - clearinghouse

this would shield it from voter wishes, which of course is the entire idea

https://escapekey.substack.com/p/in-tandem?utm_source=publication-search