The big Facebook hack which started this stampede to insanity is allegedly fixed according to Facebook. The account info dates from 2019. That, in practice, may be meaningless. Most people don’t change all their social media data much, if at all.
The proposal by the Australian government ignores a few things rather too obviously:
1. How is this ID data to be provided? Electronically, perhaps?
2. Where will the data be stored? Online, or Cloud, perhaps?
3. What’s to stop professional hackers from accessing the ID data, and starting a plague of ID theft?
This is beyond imbecility. It flies in the face of obvious risks. Sharing your ID, 100 points, no less, online, is suicidal for personal security. There could be nothing dumber.
Idea? That’s an idea? Says who, Goldilocks?
The idea is supposedly based on a proposed ban on anonymous social media accounts. This is to put it mildly 30 years behind the times. You can call yourself John Smith or whatever, and you look like a real person. The last four years of paid hate by anonymous, non-existent people should have proved that.
The theory of providing ID is itself naïve. According to this theory, your ID means you’re a real person – Something anything any CAPTCHA app could do more accurately in less than a second. The theory also seems to believe that the millions of fake IDs can somehow be effectively checked, which they can’t. Some sites spam out fake IDs on a routine basis.
Then there’s the odd belief that handing over 100 points of ID online is anything but a massive risk for the people providing it. The most basic online security says “keep your personal details private”.
Experts say providing ID won’t solve harassment, bullying, or anything else. Many people are far less than impressed with providing so much critical data at such a risk.
Then there’s the strange implied belief that any hacker or terrorist will of course provide their real ID, right? When they can get a fake ID in seconds? When a proxy server network can easily hide anyone?
The proposed database of IDs must be safe to achieve anything at all. How? Is it possible to create a gigantic high-value database and keep it safe, even theoretically? Australia suffers billions of dollars of losses every year due to cyberattacks, hacked accounts, and scams. Most of these problems are based on different forms of compromised security. The situation is bad enough without this mindless Babes in the Wood approach to online security.
You can target problem social media accounts in many different ways, and shut them down. You can catch the people responsible. You don’t have to give the hackers a few trillion dollars’ worth of information by law, in the name of “online safety”.
Cooperate? No. Never.
Also, don’t expect much cooperation. Nobody is so dumb as to stick 100 points of ID online. Account verification doesn’t even require ID, just some basic protocols which have been in use for decades.
If you want real security, use SSL entries, not some cockamamie bureaucratic ritual with no redeeming features. This is just too damn dangerous.
DO NOT DO THIS.
Facebook says it has closed down numerous pages and accounts for posting spam and fake news. - AFP