• TheLadyAugust@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    1 day ago

    A username field isn’t for your real name, it’s for a username and it has always been for that. Stop being intentionally obtuse.

    What’s to stop them from using all of the required user fields and then running a background fingerprinting check and then using that fingerprint every single time you visit a site? It doesn’t have to be your real date of birth. What matters is that it’s a consistent info for your user account so that they can identify who you are. Obviously there are other ways to fingerprint a user, but this just makes it easier to do so, and it’s another unnecessary datapoint for “them” to use.

    People are defending this with such fervor, too, that it really makes a person doubt whether they’re even arguing against actual humans. Like, I can see why people would be against general change or against privacy invasion, but why would someone care so much about defending a date of birth field?

    • Alaknár@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      edit-2
      1 day ago

      A username field isn’t for your real name, it’s for a username and it has always been for that. Stop being intentionally obtuse.

      I’m not talking about the “username” field.

      I’m talking about the “Full name”, or “User name”, or “Name” field in the OS - name depends on the language version and the OS itself. Stop being intentionally obtuse.

      What’s to stop them from using all of the required user fields and then running a background fingerprinting check and then using that fingerprint every single time you visit a site?

      What…?

      First of all: the OS username is not shared with the website.

      Secondly: websites already do fingerprinting, what are you talking about?

      People are defending this with such fervor, too

      Yeah, “stop overreacting” is such incredible fervour!

      but why would someone care so much about defending a date of birth field?

      I could not care less. I just find it weird that you guys panic about it so much, to the point of there being dozens of new systemd forks, just because a new optional field was added.