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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Technology
Josh Taylor

Online age-verification system could create ‘honeypot’ of personal data and pornography-viewing habits, privacy groups warn

Samantha Floreani Google Medibank Optus
Man watching erotic video with phone.
Digital rights groups say almost all approaches to age verification will have some level of privacy and security risk in the event of a breach. Photograph: Tero Vesalainen/Alamy

In the wake of the Optus and Medibank data breaches, digital rights groups are urging the federal government to rule out requiring identification documents as part of any online age-verification system, warning it could create a honeypot of people’s personal information and pornography-viewing habits.

The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, is developing an online safety “roadmap”, outlining a way to prevent minors from accessing adult content online by ensuring host sites have verified the ages of users.

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