Several US states including California, Colorado, Illinois, and New York are passing or proposing laws requiring operating systems and app stores to verify user ages. This creates major compliance challenges for Linux and open-source distributions, which lack centralized accounts or app stores. System76's CEO met with a Colorado senator who suggested excluding open-source software from the bill, offering a potential path forward. Meanwhile, Valve is fighting a New York Attorney General lawsuit over loot boxes, publicly refusing demands to implement invasive global data collection and additional age verification beyond what payment processors already provide. Both cases highlight a broader tension between state-level regulations framed around child safety and the privacy implications of mandatory data collection.
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