If the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is passed into law, it will require websites and services to use age verification for their users. (This is not necessarily because it’s explicitly in the text of the bill, it’s just the only way, practically speaking, for websites and services to comply.) Whether the websites put in their own age verification mechanism or use one provided by a third party, this will create troves of sensitive and valuable personal information that wouldn’t otherwise exist. Age verification services are already running today and are used by companies like TikTok and Uber. They collect and store personally identifiable information (PII) like people’s legal names, addresses, and dates of birth. Often, they also include copies of identifying documents for age verification purposes, like images of drivers’ licenses. And they are attractive targets for criminals and hackers looking to commit identity theft, identity fraud, and other crimes. AUTO10TIX, the ID verification service used by Uber, TikTok, PayPal, and other popular web services was recently hacked, putting all the stored records there (and the associated individuals) at risk. This is likely to have a lot of negative consequences for people who’ve had their PII and images of their drivers’ licenses stolen. And with KOSA driving more adoption of age verification and repositories of PII - which are, again, a big juicy target for hackers - the risks of these types of hacks and the damage will increase. KOSA will facilitate more hacks and crimes of identity theft and fraud. Nobody will be able to protect themselves unless they just refrain from using the internet, which isn’t really feasible for most people in this day and age. The best way to protect people from having their personal information stolen is NOT TO COLLECT IT IN THE FIRST PLACE if at all possible, but that’s at odds with KOSA and what it will require. This bill, if passed, will significantly increase hundreds of millions of Americans’ vulnerability to identity fraud crimes with little or no recourse. This is one of many reasons to vote against KOSA, and I hope you will.
