Illinois

Illinois’ New Age Verification Law Is a Disaster for Privacy. Here’s Why Big Tech Is Celebrating.

Illinois’ HB5511 forces operating systems to verify ages, but it’s a gift to Big Tech — they get to offload liability while open-source devs face impossible mandates. The law is technologically illiterate, unenforceable, and sets a dangerous precedent for state-level internet fragmentation. Privacy and anonymity are the real casualties.

Illinois Just Made It Illegal to Own a Computer Without a Government ID Badge

An Illinois bill is quietly demanding that every operating system report user ages at the OS level — not the app level. For Windows and macOS, compliance is trivial. For Linux, which has no central account system, this law could mean forced redesign or an outright ban. Behind the language of child protection lies something far more dangerous: the normalization of government surveillance baked into the software layer of every device you own.