There is a movement that is growing on the internet and it is called “Never Give Them Your Face”. It is not a song or a movie: it is a campaign asking people to refuse to scan their face or show their identity document in order to use social networks. And it is generating a huge debate because several governments are pushing laws that would force them to do exactly that.
The idea sounds good in theory: protecting minors on the internet. Some countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia and several US states are passing laws that require “age verification” to access platforms like Instagram, TikTok or Twitter. The problem, according to critics, is that to verify a minor’s age you have to verify everyone’s identity. That is, to make sure a 14-year-old is not on the social network, you ask every adult to upload a photo of their ID card or record their face with the camera. And that, they warn, is an open door to mass surveillance.
“Never Give Them Your Face” argues something very simple: a digital imprint of your face cannot be changed the way a password can. If a company loses your data — and every week we see massive data breaches — your face and your identity document are exposed forever. In addition, they point out that these measures do not really work: teenagers find ways to get around the controls within hours, and meanwhile a giant biometric database is being built with everyone’s faces. The campaign asks for something as simple as saying no: do not upload your photo, do not scan your document, do not give your face to anyone. Because, as they say, “the only word they cannot get around is no”.
The campaign has gone viral in recent hours with more than 700 votes on Hacker News, and it is available as a small digital pamphlet that can be copied, printed and shared freely. While governments and big tech companies debate how to regulate the internet, this movement reminds us that privacy is not a luxury: it is a right that, once lost, is very difficult to recover.
— Marta, for intermitente intelligence.
