userdb: add birthDate field to JSON user records by dylanmtaylor · Pull Request #40954 · systemd/systemd
github.com
Stores the user's birth date for age verification, as required by recent laws in California (AB-1043), Colorado (SB26-051), Brazil (Lei 15.211/2025), etc. The xdg-desktop-portal project is addi...

Fork time? Maybe all the anti-systemd zealots were right all along…

Edit: To address whether it is likely that this change will affect users: Gnome is planning a stronger dependence on userdb, the part of systemd where this change is being implemented. https://blogs.gnome.org/adrianvovk/2025/06/10/gnome-systemd-dependencies/

Final Edit: The PR has been merged into main.

  • CrackedLinuxISO@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    33·
    13 hours ago

    Has anyone even looked at the PR? Why is there such a big stink about adding an optional birthday field to a JSON schema? It’s opt-in and can’t be validated in any way.

    That’s like saying OpenSSL is the thin end of an anti-encryption wedge because they provide FIPS compliant modules. Or complaining that it puts your privacy at risk when you generate an SSH key and it asks for your address.

    The problem is the laws getting passed, not with software that gives people a choice about whether to comply.

    • Atomic@sh.itjust.works
      19·
      10 hours ago

      Personally, I just don’t like the taste of asslicking in my distributions. Time to change to a non systemd distro.

    • skyline2@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
      15·
      9 hours ago

      Yes, the PR specifically calls out the laws as the reason for this change. The problem is BOTH the laws getting passed, and corporate interests complying in advance.

    • Brargenzilian@lemmy.orgEnglish
      17·
      12 hours ago

      … can’t be validated in any way.

      I feel like this will be a problem for the future.

      Edit: another user already pointed out the “problem for the future” here.

      • CrackedLinuxISO@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        3·
        10 hours ago

        It definitely will be a problem, but it will be a legal problem, not a software problem. Even if the systemd devs decided to revert this commit and never collect age data, the law would still be just a shitty as it is now.

        If this law said that everyone needed to provide a phone number instead of a birthday, would everyone here be just as angry at the Bell Labs developers who wrote the GECOS standard?

    • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
      7·
      12 hours ago

      The problem is the laws getting passed, not with software that gives people a choice about whether to comply.

      OK, but the law didn’t even get written. That asshole decided to open up and deepthroat the boot before it even entered the room.