A developer reflects on the growing push for identity and age verification online, questioning whether any service truly warrants surrendering personal data. The author, who maintains a deliberately isolated digital lifestyle, struggles to identify a single platform where verification would be acceptable.

This stance emerges as governments worldwide consider mandatory verification for social media access, often bundled with age restrictions for minors. The author notes that most proposals lack clear objectives and ignore broader sociological implications, instead favoring what they call "technosolutionism" - quick technical fixes to complex social problems.

For this self-described digital minimalist, workarounds exist for nearly every scenario. From Jellyfin-based media consumption to Kiwix Wikipedia archives, the author has built a privacy-respecting ecosystem that sidesteps mainstream platforms. The only potential exception involves client work requiring tools like Teams or Zoom, where professional obligations might force compliance despite personal objections.