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The Engineer Who Tried to Put Age Verification Into Linux
(www.sambent.com)
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this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2026
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Yes, it's exactly like the realName and location fields that have been in UNIX/Linux for over 60 years.
It's incredibly clear who is being whipped up into a frenzy by social media clickbait. Your birthDate is not nearly as privacy-destroying as your real name, location, office number, home phone number, e-mail address, etc. These fields have been in Linux since the beginning and, like birthDate will be, are typically left blank and ignored.
If you wanted to throw on your tinfoil hat you could ask 'Well what if, in the future, some bad guy forced you to actually put your REAL NAME in the realName field?' That's basically what is happening in this thread, in addition to brigading a lynch mob on a systemd developer.