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Well, the API itself seems fairly well designed from a privacy perspective. It only shares age ranges, not specific ages, and only if you allow it. The data is

by Ajedi32 3mo ago

Well, the API itself seems fairly well designed from a privacy perspective. It only shares age ranges, not specific ages, and only if you allow it. The data is also fuzzed to prevent an app from determining your exact birth date, and it's all tied in to the parental control system.[1] The problem remains though that, since the laws this feature was created to comply with put the onus on Google to verify the user's age and not on the device owner (e.g. the parents), the method they use to determine the user's age to feed into this API is terrible from both a privacy and freedom perspective: they force you to send them a copy of your government ID, and delete your account if you don't comply.[3] [1]: https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/17232873 https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/17232873 [2]: https://developer.android.com/google/play/age-signals/understand-age-signals-responses https://developer.android.com/google/play/age-signals/unders... [3]: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/1333913 https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/1333913

Aachen 3mo ago
The API is tied to a Google account though. You can't simply install an app on Android and have Android tell it what the user's age is, it has to first have google maps, youtube, play services, etc. installed and you need to make an account and log in globally on your device before it can tell the app an age. I don't know that I'd call that a good design for an Android API
- Ajedi32 3mo ago
  Yes, and as I said that's a problem with the laws, which "put the onus on Google to verify the user's age". If it were legal for the device itself to somehow determine the user's age without involving Google at all, I agree that would be a much better design.
egorfine 3mo ago
Look, it's just a start. Up next: KYC via Persona to use your phone. This is kind of inevitable.
xg15 3mo ago
Interesting that Google offers a method "age verification by email address" that seems to come close to the popular "my account is already more than 18 years old" argument. Only that in this case, they check on which website the account is used, which comes over even more horrible from a privacy perspective. Also, the German translation is unintentionally hilarious. They seem to wildly switch between formal and informal pronouns depending on whether the paragraph is about the reader being above 18 years or below.

by Ajedi32 3mo ago

Aachen 3mo ago

The API is tied to a Google account though. You can't simply install an app on Android and have Android tell it what the user's age is, it has to first have google maps, youtube, play services, etc. installed and you need to make an account and log in globally on your device before it can tell the app an age. I don't know that I'd call that a good design for an Android API

Ajedi32 3mo ago
Yes, and as I said that's a problem with the laws, which "put the onus on Google to verify the user's age". If it were legal for the device itself to somehow determine the user's age without involving Google at all, I agree that would be a much better design.

egorfine 3mo ago

Look, it's just a start. Up next: KYC via Persona to use your phone. This is kind of inevitable.

xg15 3mo ago

Interesting that Google offers a method "age verification by email address" that seems to come close to the popular "my account is already more than 18 years old" argument. Only that in this case, they check on which website the account is used, which comes over even more horrible from a privacy perspective. Also, the German translation is unintentionally hilarious. They seem to wildly switch between formal and informal pronouns depending on whether the paragraph is about the reader being above 18 years or below.