sheislaurence<p>Sept 29th: the day when <a href="https://mastodon.green/tags/twitter" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>twitter</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.green/tags/exbirdsite" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>exbirdsite</span></a> introduces <a href="https://mastodon.green/tags/biometrics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>biometrics</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.green/tags/id" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>id</span></a> verification for premium users, apparently as a voluntary option. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-66679922" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">bbc.co.uk/news/technology-6667</span><span class="invisible">9922</span></a>. What is not optional is that <a href="https://mastodon.green/tags/personaldata" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>personaldata</span></a> will be handled by tech company AU10TIX from <a href="https://mastodon.green/tags/Israel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Israel</span></a>, the free country that brought us <a href="https://mastodon.green/tags/Pegasus" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Pegasus</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.green/tags/spyware" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>spyware</span></a> (targeting heads of state, journalists & activists). <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/21/x-blue-users-will-need-to-send-selfie-data-to-israeli-software-company" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/21/x</span><span class="invisible">-blue-users-will-need-to-send-selfie-data-to-israeli-software-company</span></a>. It is clearly only a matter of time until ID verification is extended to all <a href="https://mastodon.green/tags/Xusers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Xusers</span></a></p>