{"id":384201,"date":"2026-04-17T12:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T12:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/384201\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T12:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T12:43:08","slug":"brussels-launched-an-age-checking-app-hackers-say-it-takes-2-minutes-to-break-it-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/384201\/","title":{"rendered":"Brussels launched an age checking app. Hackers say it takes 2 minutes to break it. \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>National governments can equally design their own apps, and the apps are meant to work together to allow for smooth age checks across the bloc.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But critics of age blocks say the technology to check people\u2019s ages with proper privacy and data protections just isn\u2019t ready \u2014 and even if it was, internet users would easily bypass it with things like virtual private networks (VPNs) that mask their location.<\/p>\n<p>Blazy was part of a group of more than 400 privacy and security experts who sent <a href=\"https:\/\/csa-scientist-open-letter.org\/ageverif-Feb2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">an open letter<\/a> to the Commission in March to impose a &#8220;moratorium on deployment plans until the scientific consensus settles on the benefits and harms that age-assurance technologies can bring, and on the technical feasibility of such a deployment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to Mark\u00e9ta Gregorov\u00e1, a member of the Czech Pirate party in the European Parliament and the lead lawmaker on a new cybersecurity bill, &#8220;this process is being rushed under political pressure.&#8221; Europe should take a much closer look at the app &#8220;to assess if all measures were taken for cybersecurity and privacy,&#8221; Gregorov\u00e1 said.<\/p>\n<p>Birgit Sippel, a prominent German center-left lawmaker, called the app a &#8220;half-baked app solution that doesn\u2019t live up to [the EU\u2019s] own standards,&#8221; in a comment to POLITICO.<\/p>\n<p>Piotr M\u00fcller, a Polish lawmaker for the European Conservatives and Reformists, said: &#8220;Brussels is once again pushing for a centralized, EU-wide technological tool. The hastily announced age verification app poses a massive risk to the privacy of citizens \u2026 We cannot agree to the step-by-step creation of a Chinese-style internet in Europe.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Laurens Cerulus contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"National governments can equally design their own apps, and the apps are meant to work together to allow&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[97567,121585,29019,78973,1221,18723,1073,342,111,139,69,11747,6903,1414,8183,145,12723,1079],"class_list":{"0":"post-384201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-consumer-policy","9":"tag-content-moderation","10":"tag-data-protection","11":"tag-digital-services-act","12":"tag-france","13":"tag-hackers","14":"tag-media","15":"tag-mobile","16":"tag-new-zealand","17":"tag-newzealand","18":"tag-nz","19":"tag-platforms","20":"tag-privacy","21":"tag-social-media","22":"tag-software","23":"tag-technology","24":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","25":"tag-youth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}