this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2026
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I get it, but I believe it to be a false equivalence. This change is not happening in isolation. There is currently a general trend towards de-anonymising users, and this DOB field is a step in that direction.
The only real question is, do I want my computer storing more, or less, personally identifying information. Given that I don't trust the intended use, or ANY use which is later enabled by this, my answer is 'less'.
So, how about we start freaking out when someone starts making these fields required, instead of right away?
because it’s too late at that point, which is the whole point and issue!
if the field is necessary, but the data is useless, then it shouldn’t be there. if the data becomes required then it should not be there. so the result, it should not be there
A PR is when the discussion is supposed to happen. It's an open source project, nothing happens "too late" to discuss. You see that change in the pull request, you can start moaning about it.
Who defines what's "useless"? You? On what authority?
the discussion happens right now, because i said so, because others are talking about it. and the data is useless when anything can be put in, it’s not used for anything, and it can’t be verified. it fails all three tests in determining usefulness
Why hasn't the discussion started when
realNamewas introduced?Someone may find these data points useful, for whatever reason. No point in being angry at a date field, mate.
let’s also talk about that then. we need to remove that immediately
Again: what authority do you have to decide which data fields are useful, and which aren't?
How do you personally differentiate between "useful" and "useless"? Is it: "I have no need for it therefore it needs to be removed", by any chance?
by your claim, the field can have any series of numbers, that there is no way to determine if it is accurate, and the law that this was done to appease is bad, as in not able to obtain its expected result. and so the data is useless.
if some api/program/government wishes to get my information, they can ask me so that i may decline. there is no use case that these fields are a benefit to the user. and as such must be wrenched out with the fervor reserved for denying a fey creature your name.
if the argument is that these entities can get my name by other means anyway, then this data is redundant and useless.
Yeah, so this tells me you have no clue what you're actually talking about.
You don't even stop to think for a second that maybe some enterprise setting requires such fields. Maybe they have software that populates account information based on their HR systems' data, auto-creating user accounts? Maybe they can find a DoB field useful? Zero clue, zero thought, just "I don't use it, therefore it's useless".
No point in continuing this discussion, I guess.
and they would need a birth date WHY? they would need to populate that information from here, WHY? especially since this was not brought into being because this was it’s use case, but because a state improperly demanded it, at the same time they are demanding other authoritarian surveillance over the populous right now? no i don’t think so. User name is more then sufficient