Reject Online ID Check Bills — They Endanger New Yorkers

Reject any online ID verification bill that comes before you in Albany. These bills are being sold as child safety measures, but 90 civil rights and privacy organizations — led by Fight for the Future — have made clear they do the opposite. Requiring New Yorkers to upload driver's licenses, birth certificates, or biometric data to access websites hands sensitive personal information to third-party companies and large databases that are vulnerable to breaches and warrantless law enforcement access. The censorship risk is just as serious. These bills give lawmakers sweeping authority to define what's "harmful to minors," language that has already been used in other states to target LGBTQ+ content, drag performances, and books. For queer New Yorkers, people seeking abortion information, or anyone relying on the open web for health resources, that's not a hypothetical threat. And the safety argument doesn't hold up: when ID checks go up, kids don't stop looking — they migrate to less moderated corners of the internet. New York can protect young people without building a surveillance infrastructure. Support data privacy legislation, push for antitrust accountability against Big Tech, and pursue algorithmic justice reforms. That's the path to a safer internet — not ID checkpoints that put marginalized communities most at risk.