Software Engineering Daily · Tuesday, September 1, 2026
Kevin Ball expresses concern that if governments mandate age verification, it could lead to greater access or scrutiny of user data. He highlights that platforms like Google already collect extensive user data, and government involvement could amplify privacy risks by creating or consolidating databases of user behavior.
“What makes it a little bit more creepy in my mind is if the government requires this, and then now puts it in a compliance or regulatory structure where they're going to have either more access or more questions about how all this operates.”
“And so, while the idea is to keep kids out of these spaces, it's also creating this massive database of how people are behaving online that then governments could potentially access.”
“And the privacy concerns are just tremendous.”