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Does ANYBODY EVER provide an accurate response to a question like that (except when there's reason to believe they can detect it and do something to your detrim

Does ANYBODY EVER provide an accurate response to a question like that (except when there's reason to believe they can detect it and do something to your detriment if you lie)? If so, why? Anybody who asks deserves to be chaffed into oblivion with garbage data. Especially, who would be dumb enough to admit to being under 18, or, worse, under 13? An 8 year old should see the obvious reasons not to do that. A bright 6 year old. I used to lie and say I was really old, but now I'm really old so I just lie at random.

soperj 4y ago
I remember playing Leisure Suit Larry at 8 or 9 years old. They'd test you to make sure you were over 18 but if you said you were over 99, it would just reply "No you're not" and boot you. I don't remember what they'd do if you said you were under 18, I don't know if I was dumb enough to ever try it once.
- kibwen 4y ago
  Here's Leisure Suit Larry's age quiz, consisting of pop culture questions that would have suggested adulthood back in 1987: https://allowe.com/games/larry/tips-manuals/lsl1-age-quiz.html https://allowe.com/games/larry/tips-manuals/lsl1-age-quiz.ht...
  - wvenable 4y ago
    Getting through the age quiz as a kid was almost as fun as playing the game.
  - b800h 4y ago
    Did they alter it for foreign markets? Some very US centric questions there.
    - LAC-Tech 4y ago
      How much of a foreign market was there for English language computer games in 1987?
  - soperj 4y ago
    That can't be all of them. I swear there was one with Bo Jackson as well, which I would confuse with the Bo Derek ones (didn't know who either was at the time).
StillBored 4y ago
Yah I used to type 1911, but its interesting just how old some sites allow you to be. Some places can't even deal with 100 year olds (which isn't that uncommon) while others allow you to be 150+. Presumably some places appear to just be doing todays date-120/130 years. So its possible to create an account that likely won't be able to revalidate ones birthday using their age validators in a few years unless they adjust the age because you will be over what they think is the max age.
birdman3131 4y ago
Depending on the site if they are gonna use it as verification in the future. Im not gonna remember the randomly entered date. Its not like you can identify 87% of the US based on Date of birth, 5 digit Zip Code and gender. Oh wait. https://dataprivacylab.org/projects/identifiability/index.html https://dataprivacylab.org/projects/identifiability/index.ht...
- Hizonner 4y ago
  Does that mean you give real answers to the other "password recovery" questions? "Verification" questions should get random answers that get saved in your password manager.
  - nprateem 4y ago
    It's always fun when you have to call up customer support though and have to spell your mother's maiden name. "Yes it's right bracket, exclamation, capital R, dollar sign..."
    - b800h 4y ago
      "She was a member of the Technocracy Movement" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy_movement https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy_movement
user3939382 4y ago
My "birthday" is January 1, 1970 (an homage to unix) for any database/system inappropriately asking. This way they don't have my data to leak or abuse, but I still know what I specified if I'm asked to verify it.
- Ancient 4y ago
  I always use January 1st {Birth Year} (easy to remember) but I like this now too. Thanks
  - kgwxd 4y ago
    That's still accurate enough for their goals though. I put random very old dates and just keep DOBs noted in my password manager.
- katla 4y ago
  I might just start doing the same. Thanks! :)
- LeifCarrotson 4y ago
  At 00:00:00 UTC, I assume? I don't expect there's any reason for them to divide by a datetime...but one can hope that some ad server somewhere has crashed as a result. My go-to birthday has always been January 1st of the year I was actually born. That way it doesn't raise any eyebrows if I want to convert something to a real account or interact with real people, but it fails verification if they mishandle my credentials. That's worked great, except that one time when I inadvertently booked a flight on united.com (who should have my actual birthday, with whom I'd flown internationally several times before) with a session token or something set by a random travel search engine to whom I had given my fake January 1st birthday and then (I thought) abandoned before picking a different flight. Customs had pointed questions about the authenticity of my passport and driver's license, because their system showed that my documents should be different and they couldn't tell me why... They eventually let me back into the country, but that was not fun.
  - vanilla_nut 4y ago
WarOnPrivacy 4y ago
> Especially, who would be dumb enough to admit to being under 18 For websites that respect COPPA, under-13 might be your best bet for less targeting ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Online_Privacy_Protection_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Online_Privacy_Pr...
- Hizonner 4y ago
  Yeah, but the problem is that it often locks you out of the site completely, which they don't tell you until you've answered. And when it doesn't, it often breaks features or locks down your access to content. I guess in theory it could also trigger them to ask for a note from your parents...
  - WarOnPrivacy 4y ago
    > but the problem is that it often locks you out of the site completely, which they don't tell you until you've answered. I see now. Children under 13 are not currently permitted to register on the sites and apps for Disney Parks. For activities on apps and other online offerings, minor children under 13 years old may access some content under the supervision of a parent or guardian within that person's account. ref: https://plandisney.disney.go.com/question/create-accounts-minor-children-play-disney-app-421312/ https://plandisney.disney.go.com/question/create-accounts-mi...
basch 4y ago
Have you ever given the wrong information, and then later needed to use it as some type of security / identity verification? I know I've run into it at least once, I think maybe Microsoft, where having an unknown birth date on the account became a huge headache. Lesson learned. Write stuff like this down in a vault too.
- Hizonner 4y ago
  Keeping your legend straight is a fundamental part of good tradecraft...
- everybodyknows 4y ago
  I gave Google an off-by-one birth date way back when. A few years ago they figured it out -- sorry, don't recall what hints they may have been working from -- and demanded a correction. After considering the implicit threat, account termination, I surrendered the actual birthdate.
hiq 4y ago
I know somebody who lost an instagram account like this. Provided fake info when signing up. Years later, get a request to post an id or get banned. Id didn't match the fake info of course, so account banned all the same.

soperj 4y ago

I remember playing Leisure Suit Larry at 8 or 9 years old. They'd test you to make sure you were over 18 but if you said you were over 99, it would just reply "No you're not" and boot you. I don't remember what they'd do if you said you were under 18, I don't know if I was dumb enough to ever try it once.

kibwen 4y ago
Here's Leisure Suit Larry's age quiz, consisting of pop culture questions that would have suggested adulthood back in 1987: https://allowe.com/games/larry/tips-manuals/lsl1-age-quiz.html https://allowe.com/games/larry/tips-manuals/lsl1-age-quiz.ht...
- wvenable 4y ago
  Getting through the age quiz as a kid was almost as fun as playing the game.
- b800h 4y ago
  Did they alter it for foreign markets? Some very US centric questions there.
  - LAC-Tech 4y ago
    How much of a foreign market was there for English language computer games in 1987?
- soperj 4y ago
  That can't be all of them. I swear there was one with Bo Jackson as well, which I would confuse with the Bo Derek ones (didn't know who either was at the time).

StillBored 4y ago

Yah I used to type 1911, but its interesting just how old some sites allow you to be. Some places can't even deal with 100 year olds (which isn't that uncommon) while others allow you to be 150+. Presumably some places appear to just be doing todays date-120/130 years. So its possible to create an account that likely won't be able to revalidate ones birthday using their age validators in a few years unless they adjust the age because you will be over what they think is the max age.

birdman3131 4y ago

Depending on the site if they are gonna use it as verification in the future. Im not gonna remember the randomly entered date. Its not like you can identify 87% of the US based on Date of birth, 5 digit Zip Code and gender. Oh wait. https://dataprivacylab.org/projects/identifiability/index.html https://dataprivacylab.org/projects/identifiability/index.ht...

Hizonner 4y ago
Does that mean you give real answers to the other "password recovery" questions? "Verification" questions should get random answers that get saved in your password manager.
- nprateem 4y ago
  It's always fun when you have to call up customer support though and have to spell your mother's maiden name. "Yes it's right bracket, exclamation, capital R, dollar sign..."
  - b800h 4y ago
    "She was a member of the Technocracy Movement" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy_movement https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy_movement

user3939382 4y ago

My "birthday" is January 1, 1970 (an homage to unix) for any database/system inappropriately asking. This way they don't have my data to leak or abuse, but I still know what I specified if I'm asked to verify it.

Ancient 4y ago
I always use January 1st {Birth Year} (easy to remember) but I like this now too. Thanks
- kgwxd 4y ago
  That's still accurate enough for their goals though. I put random very old dates and just keep DOBs noted in my password manager.
katla 4y ago
I might just start doing the same. Thanks! :)
LeifCarrotson 4y ago
At 00:00:00 UTC, I assume? I don't expect there's any reason for them to divide by a datetime...but one can hope that some ad server somewhere has crashed as a result. My go-to birthday has always been January 1st of the year I was actually born. That way it doesn't raise any eyebrows if I want to convert something to a real account or interact with real people, but it fails verification if they mishandle my credentials. That's worked great, except that one time when I inadvertently booked a flight on united.com (who should have my actual birthday, with whom I'd flown internationally several times before) with a session token or something set by a random travel search engine to whom I had given my fake January 1st birthday and then (I thought) abandoned before picking a different flight. Customs had pointed questions about the authenticity of my passport and driver's license, because their system showed that my documents should be different and they couldn't tell me why... They eventually let me back into the country, but that was not fun.
- vanilla_nut 4y ago

WarOnPrivacy 4y ago

> Especially, who would be dumb enough to admit to being under 18 For websites that respect COPPA, under-13 might be your best bet for less targeting ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Online_Privacy_Protection_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Online_Privacy_Pr...

Hizonner 4y ago
Yeah, but the problem is that it often locks you out of the site completely, which they don't tell you until you've answered. And when it doesn't, it often breaks features or locks down your access to content. I guess in theory it could also trigger them to ask for a note from your parents...
- WarOnPrivacy 4y ago
  > but the problem is that it often locks you out of the site completely, which they don't tell you until you've answered. I see now. Children under 13 are not currently permitted to register on the sites and apps for Disney Parks. For activities on apps and other online offerings, minor children under 13 years old may access some content under the supervision of a parent or guardian within that person's account. ref: https://plandisney.disney.go.com/question/create-accounts-minor-children-play-disney-app-421312/ https://plandisney.disney.go.com/question/create-accounts-mi...

basch 4y ago

Have you ever given the wrong information, and then later needed to use it as some type of security / identity verification? I know I've run into it at least once, I think maybe Microsoft, where having an unknown birth date on the account became a huge headache. Lesson learned. Write stuff like this down in a vault too.

Hizonner 4y ago
Keeping your legend straight is a fundamental part of good tradecraft...
everybodyknows 4y ago
I gave Google an off-by-one birth date way back when. A few years ago they figured it out -- sorry, don't recall what hints they may have been working from -- and demanded a correction. After considering the implicit threat, account termination, I surrendered the actual birthdate.

hiq 4y ago

I know somebody who lost an instagram account like this. Provided fake info when signing up. Years later, get a request to post an id or get banned. Id didn't match the fake info of course, so account banned all the same.